Plate_Austral English

Anas superciliosa, Gmel.

Australian Wild Duck . . . 9

Anas naevosa, Gould,

Freckled Duck . . . 10

Anas punctata, Cuv.

Chestnut-breasted Duck . . . 11

Spatula Rhyncotis,

Australian Shoveller . . . 12

Malacorhynchus membranaceus, . . . 13

Membranaceous Duck

Dendrocygna arcuata,

Whistling Duck (q.v.) . . . 14

Leptolarsis Eytoni, Gould,

Eyton's Duck . . . 15

Nyroca Australis, Gould,

White-eyed Duck . . . 16

Erismatura Australis,

Blue-billed Duck . . . 17

Biziura lobata,

Musk Duck . . . 18

The following is Professor Parker's statement of the New Zealand

Ducks.

1889. Prof. Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,'

p. 117:

"There are eleven species of Native Ducks belonging to nine

genera, all found elsewhere, except two--the little Flightless

Duck of the Auckland Islands (genus Nesonetta) and the

Blue Mountain Duck (Hymenolaemus). Among the most

interesting of the non-endemic forms, are the Paradise Duck or

Sheldrake (Casarca variegata), the Brown Duck (Anas

chlorotis), the Shoveller or Spoonbill Duck (Rhynchaspis

variegata), and the Scaup or Black Teal (Fuligula

Novae-Zealandiae)."

<hw>Duckbill</hw>, n. See Platypus. Sometimes

also called Duckmole.

<hw>Duckmole</hw>, n. See Platypus.

1825. Barron Field, `First Fruits of Australian Poetry,'

in `Geographical Memoirs of New South Wales,' p. 496:

"When sooty swans are once more rare,

And duck-moles the museum's care."

[Appendix : "Water or duck-mole."]

1875. Schmidt, `Descent and Darwinism,' p. 237:

"The Ornithorhyncus or duck-mole of Tasmania."

<hw>Duck-shoving</hw>, and <hw>Duckshover</hw>, n.

a cabman's phrase.

In Melbourne, before the days of trams, the wagonette-cabs used

to run by a time-table from fixed stations at so much

(generally 3d.) a passenger. A cabman who did not wait

his turn on the station rank, but touted for passengers up and

down the street in the neighbourhood of the rank, was termed a

Duck-shover.

1870. D. Blair, `Notes and Queries,' Aug. 6, p. 111:

"Duck-shoving is the term used by our Melbourne cabmen to

express the unprofessional trick of breaking the rank, in order

to push past the cabman on the stand for the purpose of picking

up a stray passenger or so."

1896. `Otago Daily Times,' Jan. 25, p. 3, col. 6:

"The case was one of a series of cases of what was technically

known as `duck shoving,' a process of getting passengers which

operated unfairly against the cabmen who stayed on the licensed

stand and obeyed the by-law."

<hw>Dudu</hw>, n. aboriginal name for a pigeon,

fat-breasted, and very good eating.

1852. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes' (3rd ed. 1855), c. vii.

p. 170:

"In the grassland, a sort of ground pigeon, called the dudu,

a very handsome little bird, got up and went off like a

partridge, strong and swift, re-alighting on the ground, and

returning to cover."

<hw>Duff</hw>, v. to steal cattle by altering the

brands.

1869. E. Carton Booth, `Another England,' p. 138:

"He said there was a `duffing paddock' somewhere on the Broken

River, into which nobody but the owner had ever found an

entrance, and out of which no cattle had ever found their

way--at any rate, not to come into their owner's

possession. . . . The man who owned the `duffing paddock'

was said to have a knack of altering cattle brands . . ."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xiv. p. 162:

"I knew Redcap when he'd think more of duffing a red heifer

than all the money in the country."

1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydneyside Saxon,' p. 95:

"As to the calves I'm a few short myself, as I think that

half-caste chap of yours must have `duffed.'"

<hw>Duffer</hw>, n. a cattle stealer,

i.q. Cattle-duffer (q.v.).

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xxv. p. 352:

"What's a little money . . . if your children grow up duffers

and planters?"

<hw>Duffer</hw>2, n. a claim on a mine which turns out

unproductive, called also shicer (q.v.). [This is only

a special application of the slang English, duffer, an

incapable person, or a failure. Old English Daffe, a

fool]

1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 193:

"It was a terrible duffer anyhow, every ounce of gold got from

it cost L 20 I'll swear."

1864. J Rogers, `New Rush,' p. 55:

"Tho' duffers are so common

And golden gutters rare,

The mining sons of woman

Can much ill fortune bear."

1873. A.Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 291:

"A shaft sunk without any produce from it is a duffer. . . .

But of these excavations the majority were duffers. It is the

duffering part of the business which makes it all so sad.So

much work is done from which there is positively no return."

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 266:

"The place is then declared to be a `duffer,' and abandoned,

except by a few fanatics, who stick there for months and

years."

1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 21, p. 1014:

"Another duffer! Rank as ever was bottomed! Seventy-five feet

hard delving and not a colour!"

<hw>Duffer out</hw>, v. A mine is said to duffer out,

when it has ceased to be productive.

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 279:

"He then reported to the shareholders that the lode had

`duffered out,' and that it was useless to continue working."

1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 73:

"Cloncurry has, to use the mining parlance, duffered out."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. vi. p. 58:

"`So you're duffered out again, Harry,' she said."

<hw>Dugong Oil</hw>, n. an oil obtained in Australia,

from Halicore dugong, Gmel., by boiling the superficial

fat. A substitute for cod-liver oil. The dugongs are a genus

of marine mammals in the order Sirenia.

H. dugong inhabits the waters of North and North-east

Australia, the southern shores of Asia, and the east coast of

Africa. The word is Malay.

<hw>Dug-out</hw>, n. a name imported into New Zealand

from America, but the common name for an ordinary Maori canoe.

<hw>Duke Willy</hw>, n. See Whistling Dick.

<hw>Dummy</hw>, n. (1) In Australia, when land was

thrown open for selection (q.v.), the squatters who had

previously the use of the land suffered. Each squatter

exercised his own right of selection. Many a one also induced

others to select nominally for themselves, really for the

squatter. Such selector was called a dummy. The law then

required the selector to swear that he was selecting the land

for his own use and benefit. Some of the dummies did not

hesitate to commit perjury. Dictionaries give "dummy,

adj. fictitious or sham." The Australian noun is an

extension of this idea. Webster gives "(drama) one who

plays a merely nominal part in any action, sham character."

This brings us near to the original dumby, from

dumb, which is radically akin to German dumm,

stupid.

1866. D. Rogerson, `Poetical Works, p. 23:

"The good selectors got most of the land,

The dummies being afraid to stand."

1866. H. Simcox, `Rustic Rambles, p. 21:

"See the dummies and the mediums,

Bagmen, swagmen, hastening down."

1872. A. McFarland, `Illawarra and Manaro,' p. 125:

"Since free selection was introduced, a good many of the

squatters (they say, in self-defence) have, in turn, availed

themselves of it, to secure `the eyes' or water-holes of the

country, so far as they could by means of `dummies,' and other

blinds."

1879. R. Niven, `Fraser's Magazine,' April, p. 516:

"This was the, in the colony, well-known `dummy' system. Its

nature may be explained in a moment. It was simply a swindling

transaction between the squatter on the one hand and some

wretched fellow on the other, often a labourer in the

employment of the squatter, in which the former for a

consideration induced the latter to personate the character of

a free selector, to acquire from the State, for the purpose of

transferring to himself, the land he most coveted out of that

thrown open for selection adjoining his own property."

1892. `Scribner's Magazine,' Feb. p. 140:

"By this device the squatter himself, all the members of the

family, his servants, shepherds, boundary-riders, station-hands

and rabbiters, each registered a section, the dummies duly

handing their `selection' over to the original holder for a

slight consideration."

(2) Colloquial name for the grip-car of the Melbourne trams.

Originally the grip-car was not intended to carry passengers:

hence the name.

1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), p. 5, col. 5:

"Linked to the car proper is what is termed a dummy."

1897. `The Argus,' Jan. 2, p. 7, col. 5:

"But on the tramcar, matters were much worse. The front seat

of the dummy was occupied by a young Tasmanian lady and her

cousin, and, while one portion of the cart struck her a

terrible blow on the body, the shaft pinned her by the neck

against the front stanchion of the dummy."

<hw>Dummy</hw>, v. to obtain land in the way above

described.

1873. A.Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. vi. p. 101:

"Each partner in the run has purchased his ten thousand,

and there have been many Mrs. Harrises. The Mrs. Harris system

is generally called dummying--putting up a non-existent

free-selector--and is illegal. But I believe no one will deny

that it has been carried to a great extent."

1896. `The Champion' (Melbourne), Jan. 11:

"The verb `to dummy' and the noun `dummyism' are purely

Australian, quotations to illustrate the use of which can be

obtained from `Hansard,' the daily papers, and such works as

Epps' monograph on the `Land Tenure Systems of Australasia.'"

<hw>Dummyism</hw>, n. obtaining land by

misrepresentation. See Dummy, n.

1875. `The Spectator' (Melbourne), June 19, p. 8, col. 2:

"`Larrikinism' was used as a synonym for `blackguardism,'

and `dummyism' for perjury."

1876. `The Argus,' Jan. 26, p. 6, col. 6:

"Mr. Bent thought that a stop should be put to all selection

and dummyism till a land law was introduced."

1887. J. F. Hogan, `The Irish in Australia, p. 98:

"This baneful and illegal system of land-grabbing is known

throughout the colonies by the expressive name of `dummyism,'

the persons professing to be genuine selectors, desirous of

establishing themselves on the soil, being actually the agents

or the `dummies of the adjoining squatters."

<hw>Dump</hw>, n. a small coin formerly used in

Australia and Tasmania. Its history is given in the

quotations. In England the word formerly meant a heavy

leaden counter; hence the expression, "I don't care a dump."

See Holy Dollar.

1822. `Hobart Town Gazette,' December 14:

"Government Public Notice.--The Quarter Dollars, or `Dumps,'

struck from the centre of the Spanish Dollar, and issued by

His Excellency Governor Macquarie, in the year 1813, at One

Shilling and Threepence each, will be exchanged for Treasury

Bills at Par, or Sterling money."

1823. `Sydney Gazette,' Jan. ['Century']:

"The small colonial coin denominated dumps have all been called

in. If the dollar passes current for five shillings the dump

lays claim to fifteen pence value still in silver money."

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i.

p. 44

"He only solicits the loan of a `dump,' on pretence of treating

his sick gin to a cup of tea."

Ibid. p. 225:

"The genuine name of an Australian coin, in value

1s. 3d."

1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 141:

"Tattered promissory notes, of small amount and doubtful

parentage, fluttered about the colony; dumps, struck out from

dollars, were imitated by a coin prepared without requiring

much mechanical ingenuity."

1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' c. iii. p. 131:

"The Spanish dollar was much used. A circular piece was struck

out of the centre about the size of a shilling, and it was

called a `dump.'"

1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 5:

"The coin current in those days (1829) consisted of ring-

dollars and dumps, the dump being the centre of the dollar

punched out to represent a smaller currency."

1893. `The Daily News' (London), May 11, p. 4:

"The metallic currency was then [1819-25] chiefly Spanish

dollars, at that time and before and afterwards the most widely

disseminated coin in the world, and they had the current value

of 5s. But there were too few of them, and therefore

the centre of them was cut out and circulated under the name of

`dumps' at 1s. 3d. each, the remainder of the

coin--called by way of a pun, `holy dollars'--still retaining

its currency value of 5s."

<hw>Dump</hw>, v. to press closely; applied to wool.

Bales are often marked "not to be dumped."

1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 98:

"The great object of packing so close is to save carriage

through the country, for however well you may do it, it is

always re-pressed, or `dumped,' as it is called, by hydraulic

pressure on its arrival in port, the force being so great as to

crush two bales into one."

1875. R. and F. Hill, `What we saw in Australia,' p. 207:

"From the sorting-tables the fleeces are carried to the

packing-shed; there, by the help of machinery, they are pressed

into sacks, and the sacks are then themselves heavily pressed

and bound with iron bands, till they become hard cubes. This

process is called `dumping.'"

<hw>Dumplings</hw>, n. i.q. Apple-berry (q.v.).

<hw>Dundathee</hw>, or <hw>Dundathu Pine</hw>, n. the

Queensland species (Agathis robusta, Sal.) of the

Kauri Pine (q.v.); and see Pine.

<hw>Dungaree-Settler</hw>, n. Now obsolete. See

quotation.

1852. Anon, `Settlers and Convicts; or, Recollections of

Sixteen Years' Labour in the Australian Backwoods,' p. 11:

"The poor Australian settler (or, according to colonist

phraseology, the Dungaree-settler; so called from their

frequently clothing themselves, their wives, and children

in that blue Indian manufacture of cotton known as

Dungaree) sells his wheat crop."

<hw>Dunite</hw>, n. an ore in New Zealand, so called

from Dun mountain, near Nelson.

1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 56:

"Chrome ore. This ore, which is a mixture of chromic iron and

alumina, is chiefly associated with magnesian rock, resembling

olivine in composition, named Dunite by Dr. Hochstetter."

<hw>Dust</hw>, n. slang for flour.

1893. Dec. 12, `A Traveller's Note':

"A bush cook said to me to-day, we gave each sundowner a

pannikin of dust."

<hw>Dwarf-box</hw>, n. Eucalyptus microtheca,

F. v. M. See Box. This tree has also many other names.

See Maiden's `Useful Native Plants,' p. 495.

1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. c. i. p. 22:

"Dwarf-box and the acacia pendula prevailed along the plains."

<hw>Eagle</hw>, n. There are nine species of the true

Eagle, all confined to the genus Haliaetus, such as the

Baldheaded Eagle (H. leucocephalus), the national emblem

of the United States. (`Century.') In Australia the name is

assigned to--

Little Eagle--

Aquila morphnoides, Gould.

Wedge-tailed E. (Eagle-hawk)--

A. audax, Lath.

Whistling E.--

Haliaetus sphenurus, Vieill.

White-bellied Sea E.--

H. leucogaster, Gmel.

White-headed Sea E.--

Haliaster girrenera, Vieill.

<hw>Eaglehawk</hw>, n. an Australian name for the bird

Uroaetus, or Aquila audax, Lath. The name was

applied to the bird by the early colonists of New South Wales,

and has persisted. In `O.E.D.' it is shown that the name was

used in Griffith's translation (1829) of Cuvier's `Regne

Animal' as a translation of the French aigle-autour,

Cuvier's name for a South American bird of prey of the genus

Morphnus, called Spizaetus by Vieillot; but it is

added that the word never came into English use. See

Eagle. There is a town in Victoria called Eaglehawk.

The Bendigo cabmen make the name a monosyllable, "Glawk."

1834. L. E. Threlkeld, `Australian Grammar, p. 56:

"The large eaglehawk, which devours young kangaroos, lambs,

etc."

1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. i. pl. 1:

"Aquila Fucosa, Cuv., [now A. audax, Lath.]

Wedge-tailed eagle. Eaglehawk, Colonists of New South Wales."

1863. B. A. Heywood, `Vacation Tour at the Antipodes,' p. 106:

"We knew it was dying, as two large eaglehawks were hovering

about over it."

1880. Fison and Howitt, `Kamilaroi and Kurnai,' p. 251:

"The hair of a person is tied on the end of the throwing-stick,

together with the feathers of the eagle hawk."

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia', p. 106:

"Since the destruction of native dogs and eagle-hawks by the

squatters, who stocked the country with sheep, the kangaroos

have not a single natural enemy left."

1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 35:

"On the New South Wales side of the river the eagle-hawk is

sometimes so great a pest amongst the lambs that the settlers

periodically burn him out by climbing close enough to the nest

to put a fire-stick in contact with it."

<hw>Eagle-hawking</hw>, n. bush slang: plucking wool off

dead sheep.

<hw>Eagle-Ray</hw>, n. name belonging to any large

Ray of the family Myliobatidae; the New Zealand

species is Myliobatis nieuhofii.

<hw>Eastralia</hw>, n. recent colloquial name, fashioned

on the model of Westralia (q.v.), used in West Australia

for the Eastern Colonies. In Adelaide, its application seems

confined to New South Wales.

<hw>Ebony</hw>, n. a timber. The name is applied in

Australia to two species of Bauhinia,

B. carronii, F. v. M., and B. hookeri, F. v. M.,

N.O. Leguminosae. Both are called Queensland or Mountain

Ebony.

<hw>Echidna</hw>, n. a fossorial Monotreme, in general

appearance resembling a Porcupine, and often called Spiny

Ant-eater or Porcupine, or Porcupine

Ant-eater. The body is covered with thick fur from which

stiff spines protrude; the muzzle is in the form of a long

toothless beak; and the tongue is very long and extensile, and

used largely for licking up ants; the feet are short, with

strong claws adapted for burrowing. Like the Marsupials, the

Echidna is provided with a pouch, but the animal is oviparous,

usually laying two eggs at a time, which are carried about in

the pouch until the young ones are hatched, when they are fed

by a secretion from mammary glands, which do not, however, as

in other mammals, open on to a nipple. The five-toed Echidnas

(genus Echidna) are found in New Guinea, Australia, and

Tasmania, while the three-toed Echidnas (genus

Proechidna) are confined to New Guinea. The species

are--Common E., Echidna aculeata, Shaw; Bruijn's E.,

Proechidna bruijni, Peters and Doria; Black-spined E.,

Proechidna nigro-aculeata, Rothschild. The name is from

Grk. 'echidna, an adder or viper, from the shape of the

long tongue.

1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 29:

"The native porcupine or echidna is not very common."

1843. J.Backhouse, `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian

Colonies,' p. 89:

"The Porcupine of this land, Echidna hystrix, is a squat

species of ant-eater, with short quills among its hair: it

conceals itself in the day time among dead timber in the hilly

forests."

1851. `Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van

Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 178:

"Mr. Milligan mentioned that one of the Aborigines of Tasmania

reports having often discovered the nest of the Echidna

Setosa, porcupine or ant eater, of the colony; that on

several occasions one egg had been found in it, and

never more: this egg has always been found to contain a

foetus or chick, and is said to be round, considerably

less than a tennis ball, and without a shell. The mother is

said to sit continuously (for a period not ascertained) in the

manner of the common fowl over the eggs; she does not leave the

young for a considerable time after having hatched it; at

length, detaching it from the small teat, she moves out

hurriedly and at long intervals in quest of food, the young one

becoming, at each successive return, attached to the

nipple. . . The Platypus (Ornithorhyncus paradoxus) is

said to lay two eggs, having the same external membranous

covering, but of an oblong shape."

1860. G. Bennett,' Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia,'

p. 147:

"The Porcupine Ant-eater of Australia (Echidna hystrix)

(the native Porcupine or Hedgehog of the colonists), and the

Ornithorhynchus, to which it is allied in internal

organization, form the only two genera of the order

Monotremata."

1888. Cassell's' Picturesque Australasia,' vol. ii. p. 230:

"Among the gigantic boulders near the top he may capture the

burrowing ant-eating porcupine, though if perchance he place it

for a moment in the stoniest ground, it will tax all his

strength to drag it from the instantaneous burrow in which it

will defiantly embed itself."

1892. A.Sutherland, `Elementary Geography of British Colonies,'

p. 273:

"The echidna is an animal about a foot or 18 inches long,

covered with spines like a hedgehog. It lives chiefly upon

ants. With its bill, which is like a duck's but narrower, it

burrows into an ant's-hill, and then with its long, whip-like,

sticky tongue, draws the ants into its mouth by hundreds."

1894. R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia and Monotremata,' p. 247:

"In order to enable them to procure with facility their food

of ants and their larvae, echidnas are provided with very large

glands, discharging into the mouth the viscid secretion which

causes the ants to adhere to the long worm-like tongue when

thrust into a mass of these insects, after being exposed by the

digging powers of the claws of the echidna's limbs. . . .

When attacked they roll themselves into a ball similar to the

hedgehog."

<hw>Echu</hw>, n. the name of an Australian bird

which has not been identified. The word does not occur

in the ornithological lists.

1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems--Evening Hymn,' p. 53:

"The echu's songs are dying with the flute-bird's mellow tone."

1896. `The Australasian,' Jan. 11, p. 73, col. 1:

"`Yeldina' (Rochester) writes--While I was on the Murray, a few

days before Christmas last, some miles below Echuca, my

attention was attracted to the melancholy note, as of a bird

which had lost its mate, calling ee-k-o-o, e-e-koo, which was

repeated several times, after which a pause, then ee-koo,

ee-ko, coolie, coolie, ee-koo. This happened in the scrub at

sunset, and came, I think, from a bird smaller than the

Australian minah, and of a greenish yellowish hue, larger, but

similar to the members of the feathered tribe known to young

city `knights of the catapult' as greenies. It was while

returning to camp from fishing that I noticed this bird, which

appeared of solitary habits."

"`Crossbolt' (Kew) writes--The echu is probably identical with

a handsome little bird whose peculiar cry `e-e-choo' is

familiar to many bush ramblers. It is the size of a small

wood-swallow; black head, back, wings, and tail more or less

blue-black; white throat; neck and breast light to rich

brown. The female is much plainer, and would scarcely be

recognized as the mate of the former. The melodious `e-e-choo'

is usually answered from a distance, whether by the female or a

rival I cannot say, and is followed by a prolonged warbling."

<hw>Eel</hw>, n. The kinds present in Australia are--

Common Eel--

Anguilla australis, Richards.

Conger E.--

Conger labiatus, Castin., and

Gonorhynchus grayi, Richards.

Green E. (New South Wales)--

Muroena afra, Bl.

Silver E.--

Muroenesox cinereus, Forsk.; also called the Sea-eel

(New South Wales).

Conger wilsoni, Castln. (Melbourne).