1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 113_Austral English

"Special huts had to be provided for them [the sundowners],

where they enjoyed eleemosynary rations of mutton, damper,

and `Jack the Painter.'"

<hw>Jackaroo</hw>, n. a name for a Colonial Experience

(q.v.), a young man fresh from England, learning squatting;

called in New Zealand a Cadet (q.v.). Compare the American

"tenderfoot." A verse definition runs:

"To do all sorts and kinds of jobs,

Help all the men Jacks, Bills or Bobs,

As well as he is able.

To be neither boss, overseer, nor man,

But a little of all as well as he can,

And eat at the master's table."

The word is generally supposed to be a corruption (in imitation

of the word Kangaroo) of the words "Johnny Raw." Mr. Meston,

in the `Sydney Bulletin,' April 18, 1896, says it comes from

the old Brisbane blacks, who called the pied crow shrike

(Strepera graculina) "tchaceroo," a gabbling and

garrulous bird. They called the German missionaries of 1838

"jackeroo," a gabbler, because they were always talking.

Afterwards they applied it to all white men.

1880. W. Senior, `Travel and Trout,' p. 19:

"Jackaroos--the name given to young gentlemen newly arrived

from home to gather colonial experiences."

1881. A. C. Grant `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i.

p. 53:

"The young jackaroo woke early next morning."

[Footnote]: "The name by which young men who go to the

Australian colonies to pick up colonial experience are

designated."

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 85:

"Of course before starting on their own account to work a

station they go into the bush to gain colonial experience,

during which process they are known in the colony as

`jackaroos.'"

1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydneyside Saxon,' p. 74:

"We went most of the way by rail and coach, and then a

jackaroo met us with a fine pair of horses in a waggonette.

I expected to see a first cousin to a kangaroo, when the

coachdriver told us, instead of a young gentleman learning

squatting."

1894. `Sydney Morning Herald' (date lost):

"`Jack-a-roo' is of the same class of slang; but the unlucky

fellow--often gentle and soft-handed--who does the oddwork of a

sheep or cattle station, if he finds time and heart for letters

to any who love him, probably writes his rue with a

difference."

<hw>Jackaroo</hw>, v. to lead the life of a Jackaroo.

1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 152:

"I've seen such a lot of those new chums, one way and another.

They knock down all their money at the first go-off, and then

there's nothing for them to do but to go and jackaroo up in

Queensland."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xix. p. 239:

"A year or two more Jackerooing would only mean the consumption

of so many more figs of negro-head, in my case."

<hw>Jackass-fish</hw>, n. another Sydney name for the

Morwong (q.v.).

<hw>Jackass, Laughing</hw>, n. (1) The popular name of

an Australian bird, Dacelo gigas, Bodd, the Great Brown

Kingfisher of Australia; see Dacelo. To an Australian

who has heard the ludicrous note of the bird and seen its

comical, half-stupid appearance, the origin of the name seems

obvious. It utters a prolonged rollicking laugh, often

preceded by an introductory stave resembling the opening

passage of a donkey's bray.

But the name has been erroneously derived from the French

jacasse, as to which Littre gives "terme populaire.

Femme, fille qui parle beaucoup." He adds, that the word

jacasse appears to come from jacquot, a name

popularly given to parrots and magpies, our "Poll." The verb

jacasser means to chatter, said of a magpie. The

quotation from Collins (1798) seems to dispose of this

suggested French origin, by proving the early use of the name

Laughing Jackass. As a matter of fact, the French name

had already in 1776 been assigned to the bird, viz. Grand

Martin-pecheur de la Nouvelle Guinee. [See Pierre

Sonnerat, `Voyage a la Nouvelle Guinee' (Paris, 1776),

p. 171.] The only possibility of French origin would be from

the sailors of La Perouse. But La Perouse arrived in Botany

Bay on January 26, 1788, and found Captain Phillip's ships

leaving for Sydney Cove. The intercourse between them was very

slight. The French formed a most unfavourable idea of the

country, and sailed away on March 10. If from their short

intercourse, the English had accepted the word Jackass,

would not mention of the fact have been made by Governor

Phillip, or Surgeon White, who mention the bird but by a

different name (see quotations 1789, 1790), or by Captain

Watkin Tench, or Judge Advocate Collins, who both mention the

incident of the French ships?

The epithet "laughing" is now often omitted; the bird is

generally called only a Jackass, and this is becoming

contracted into the simple abbreviation of Jack. A common

popular name for it is the Settlers'-Clock. (See

quotations--1827, Cunningham; 1846, Haydon; and 1847,

Leichhardt.) The aboriginal name of the bird is

Kookaburra (q.v.), and by this name it is generally

called in Sydney; another spelling is Gogobera.

There is another bird called a Laughing Jackass in New

Zealand which is not a Kingfisher, but an Owl, Sceloglaux

albifacies, Kaup. (Maori name, Whekau). The New

Zealand bird is rare, the Australian bird very common. The

so-called Derwent Jackass of Tasmania is a Shrike

(Cracticus cinereus, Gould), and is more properly called

the Grey Butcher-bird. See Butcher-bird.

1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage,' p. 287:

Description given with picture, but under name "Great Brown

Kingsfisher" [sic].

Ibid. p. 156:

Similar bird, with description and picture, under name "Sacred

King's Fisher."

1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 137:

"We not long after discovered the Great Brown King's Fisher,

of which a plate is annexed. This bird has been described by

Mr. Latham in his `General Synopsis of Birds,' vol. ii. p. 603.

Ibid. p. 193:

"We this day shot the Sacred King's-Fisher (see plate annexed)."

1798. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South Wales,'

p. 615, (Vocabulary):

"Gi-gan-ne-gine. Bird named by us the Laughing Jackass.

Go-con-de--inland name for it."

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

p. 232:

"The loud and discordant noise of the laughing jackass (or

settler's-clock, as he is called), as he takes up his roost on

the withered bough of one of our tallest trees, acquaints us

that the sun has just dipped behind the hills."

1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean

Society,' vol. xv. p. 204:

"The settlers call this bird the Laughing Jackass. I have also

heard it called the Hawkesbury-Clock (clocks being at the

period of my residence scarce articles in the colony, there not

being one perhaps in the whole Hawkesbury settlement), for it

is among the first of the feathered tribes which announce the

approach of day."

1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,'

p. 71:

"The laughing jackass, or settler's-clock is an uncouth looking

creature of an ashen brown colour . . . This bird is the

first to indicate by its note the approach of day, and thus it

has received its other name, the settler's clock."

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 234:

"I usually rise when I hear the merry laugh of the laughing-

jackass (Dacelo gigantea), which, from its regularity,

has not been unaptly named the settlers'-clock."

1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 18:

"Dacelo Gigantea, Leach, Great Brown King Fisher;

Laughing Jackass of the Colonists."

1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 58:

"You are startled by a loud, sudden cackling, like flocks of

geese, followed by an obstreperous hoo! hoo! ha! ha! of the

laughing jackass (Dacelo gigantea) a species of jay."

[Howitt's comparison with the jay is evidently due to the azure

iridescent markings on the upper part of the wings, in colour

like the blue feathers on the jay.]

1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia,' c. vi. p. 145:

"The odd medley of cackling, bray, and chuckle notes from

the `Laughing Jackass.'"

1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 18:

"At daylight came a hideous chorus of fiendish laughter, as if

the infernal regions had been broken loose--this was the song of

another feathered innocent, the laughing jackass--not half a bad

sort of fellow when you come to know him, for he kills snakes,

and is an infallible sign of the vicinity of fresh-water."

1880. T. W. Nutt, `Palace of Industry,' p. 15:

"Where clock-bird laughed and sweet wildflowers throve."

[Footnote] "The familiar laughing jackass."

1880. Garnet Walch, `Victoria in 1880,' p. 13:

"Dense forests, where the prolonged cacchinations of that cynic

of the woods, as A. P. Martin calls the laughing jackass,

seemed to mock us for our pains."

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 37:

"The harsh-voiced, big-headed, laughing jackass."

1881. D. Blair, `Cyclopaedia of Australasia,' p. 202:

"The name it vulgarly bears is a corruption of the French word

Jacasser, `to chatter,' and the correct form is the `Laughing

Jacasse.'"

[No. See above.]

1885. `Australasian Printers' Keepsake,' p. 76:

"Magpies chatter, and the jackass

Laughs Good-morrow like a Bacchus."

1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' [telling an

old story] p. 155:

"The Archbishop inquired the name of a curious bird which had

attracted his attention. `Your grace, we call that the

laughing jackass in this country, but I don't know the

botanical [sic] name of the bird."

1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals, p. 27:

"Few of the birds of Australia have pleased me as much as this

curious laughing jackass, though it is both clumsy and

unattractive in colour. Far from deserving its name jackass,

it is on the contrary very wise and also very courageous. It

boldly attacks venomous snakes and large lizards, and is

consequently the friend of the colonist."

1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 265:

"`There's a jackass--a real laughing jackass on that dead

branch. They have such a queer note; like this,, you know--'

and upon her companion's startled ears there rang forth, all of

a sudden, the most curious, inimitable, guttural, diabolical

tremolo it had ever befallen them to hear."

1890. `Victorian Statutes-Game Act, Third Schedule':

"[Close season.] Great Kingfisher or Laughing Jackass.

The whole year. all Kingfishers other than the Laughing Jackass.

From the 1st day of August to the 20th day of December next

following in each year."

(2) The next quotations refer to the New Zealand bird.

1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 122:

"Athene Albifacies, wekau of the Maoris, is known by

some up-country settlers as the big owl or laughing

jackass."

"The cry of the laughing jackass . . . Why it should share

with one of our petrels and the great Dacelo of

Australia the trivial name of laughing jackass, we know not;

if its cry resembles laughter at all, it is the uncontrollable

outburst, the convulsive shout of insanity; we have never been

able to trace the faintest approach to mirthful sound in the

unearthly yells of this once mysterious night-bird."

1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 198:

"Sceloglaux albifacies, Kaup., Laughing Owl; Laughing

Jackass of the Colonists."

[The following quotation refers to the Derwent Jackass.]

1880. Mrs. Meredith, `Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 110:

"You have heard of . . . the laughing jackass. We, too, have

a `jackass,' a smaller bird, and not in any way remarkable,

except for its merry gabbling sort of song, which when several

pipe up together, always gives one the idea of a party of very

talkative people all chattering against time, and all at once."

<hw>Jack-bird</hw>, n. a bird of the South Island of New

Zealand, Creadion cinereus, Buller. See also

Saddle-back and Creadion.

1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 23:

"It has become the habit to speak of this bird as the Brown

Saddle-back; but this is a misnomer, inasmuch as the absence of

the `saddle' is its distinguishing feature. I have accordingly

adopted the name of Jack-bird, by which it is known among the

settlers in the South Island. Why it should be so called I

cannot say, unless this is an adaptation of the native name

Tieke, the same word being the equivalent, in the Maori

vernacular, of our Jack."

<hw>Jack Shay</hw>, or Jackshea, n. a tin quart-pot.

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 209:

"Hobbles and Jack Shays hang from the saddle dees."

[Footnote]: "A tin quart-pot, used for boiling water for tea,

and contrived so as to hold within it a tin pint-pot."

1890. `The Argus,' June14, p. 4, col. 1:

"Some of his clothes, with his saddle, serve for a pillow; his

ration bags are beside his head, and his jackshea (quart-pot)

stands by the fire."

<hw>Jacky Winter</hw>, n. the vernacular name in New

South Wales of the Brown Flycatcher, Microeca fascinans,

a common little bird about Sydney. The name has been ascribed

to the fact that it is a resident species, very common, and

that it sings all through the winter, when nearly every other

species is silent. See Flycatcher.

<hw>Jade</hw>, n. See Greenstone.

<hw>Jarrah</hw>, n. anglicised form of Jerryhl,

the native name of a certain species of Eucalyptus, which grows

in the south of Western Australia, east and south-east of

Perth. In Sir George Grey's Glossary (1840), Djar-rail;

Mr. G. F. Moore's (1884), Djarryl. (Eucalyptus

marginata, Donn.) The name Bastard-Jarrah is given

to E. botryoides, Smith, which bears many other names.

It is the Blue-Gum of New South Wales coast-districts,

the Bastard-Mahogany of Gippsland and New South Wales,

and also Swamp Mahogany in Victoria and New South Wales,

and occasionally Woolly-Butt.

1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,'

vol. ii. p. 102:

"It may be that after all the hopes of the West-Australian

Micawbers will be realised in jarrah-wood."

1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 189:

"The Jarrah or Mahogany-tree is also found in Western

Australia. The wood is red in colour, hard, heavy, close in

texture, slightly wavy in the grain, and with occasionally

enough figure to give it value for ornamental purposes; it

works up quite smoothly and takes a good polish."