Weka R. (N.Z. See Weka.)--_Austral English

See also Takahe and Notornis.

1888. W.L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' p. 121:

"Dieffenbach's Rail. . . . This beautiful Rail was brought

from the Chatham Islands by Dr. Dieffenbach in 1842, and named

by Mr. Gray in compliment to this enterprising naturalist.

The adult specimen in the British Museum, from which my

description was taken, is unique, and seems likely to remain

so."

1893. Prof Parker, `Catalogue of New Zealand Exhibition,'

p. 116:

"Hutton's rail, the third of the endemic rails . . . is

confined to the Chatham Islands."

<hw>Rain-bird</hw>, n. The name is popularly given in

many parts of the world to various birds. The Rain-bird

of Queensland and the interior is the Great Cuckoo or

Channel-bill (Scythrops novae-hollandiae, Lath., q.v.).

1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 283:

"We discovered a nest of full-fledged birds of the Australian

Shrike or Butcher-bird, also called Rain-bird by the colonists

(Vanga destructor). They were regarded by our

companions as a prize, and were taken accordingly to be caged,

and instructed in the art of whistling tunes, in which they are

great adepts."

<hw>Rainbow-fish</hw>, n. a New Zealand fish,

Heteroscharus castelnaui, Macl.

<hw>Rama-rama</hw>, n. Maori name for a New Zealand

shrub, Myrtus bullata, Banks and Sol. The name is used

in the North Island. It is often corrupted into Grama.

<hw>Rangatira</hw>, n. Maori word for a chief,

male or female; a master or mistress (Williams);

therefore an aristocrat, a person of the gentle class,

distinguished from a tau-rikarika, a nobody,

a slave.

1820. `Grammar and Vocabulary of Language of New Zealand'

(Church Missionary Society), p. 200:

"Ranga tira, a gentleman or lady."

1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,'

c. i. p. 173:

"I took care to tell them that the rangatira, or `chief'

missionaries, would come out with the settlers."

Ibid. c. ii. p. 461:

"Rangatira is Maori for `chief,' and Rangatira-tango is

therefore truly rendered `chieftainship.'"

1893. `Otago Witness, `Dec. 21, p. 11:

"Te Kooti is at Puketapu with many Rangatiras; he is a great

warrior,--a fighting chief. They say he has beaten the pakehas"

(q.v.).

<hw>Ranges</hw>, n. the usual word in Australia for

"mountains." Compare the use of "tiers" in Tasmania.

<hw>Rangy</hw>, adj. mountainous.

1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 89:

"He tramps over the most rangy and inaccessible regions of the

colonies."

1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting in Victoria'

(1841-1851), p. 46:

"The country being rangy, somewhat scrubby, and destitute of

prominent features."

<hw>Raspberry, Wild</hw>, or <hw>Native</hw>,

n. Rubus gunnianus, Hook., N.O. Rosaceae;

peculiar to Tasmania, and so called there. In Australia,

the species is Rubus rosafolius, Smith. See also

Lawyer and Blackberry.

<hw>Raspberry-jam Tree</hw>, n. name given to Acacia

acuminata, Benth., especially of Western Australia. Though

Maiden does not give the name, he says (Useful Native Plants,'

p. 349), "the scent of the wood is comparable to that of

raspberries."

1846. L. Leichhardt, quoted by J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,'

p. 328:

"Plains with groves or thickets of the raspberry-jam-tree."

1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. ii.

c. iv. p. 132:

"Raspberry-jam . . . acacia sweet-scented, grown on good

ground."

1865. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `History of the Discovery and

Exploration of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 68:

"The other trees besides the palm were known to the men by

colonial appellations, such as the bloodwood and the

raspberry-jam. The origin of the latter name, let me inform my

readers, has no connection whatever with any produce from the

tree."

1896. `The Australasian,' Feb. 15, p. 313:

"The raspberry-jam-tree is so called on account of the strong

aroma of raspberries given out when a portion is broken."

[On the same page is an illustration of these trees growing

near Perth, Western Australia.]

<hw>Rasp-pod</hw>, n. name given to a large Australian

tree, Flindersia australis, R. Br., N.O.

Meliaceae.

<hw>Rat</hw>, n. True Rodents are represented in

Australia and Tasmania by six genera; viz., Mus,

Conilurus (= Hapalotis), Xeromys, Hydromys,

Mastacomys, Uromys, of which the five latter

are confined to the Australian Region.

The genus Hydromys contains the Eastern Water

Rat, sometimes called the Beaver Rat (Hydromys

chrysogaster, Geoffroy), and the Western Water Rat

(H. fulvolavatus, Gould).

Conilurus contains the Jerboa Rats (q.v.).

Xeromys contains a single species, confined to

Queensland, and called Thomas' Rat (Xeromys

myoides, Thomas).

Mastacomys contains one species, the Broad-toothed

Rat (M. fuscus, Thomas), found alive only in

Tasmania, and fossil in New South Wales.

Uromys contains two species, the Giant Rat

(U. macropus, Gray), and the Buff-footed Rat

(U. cervinipes, Gould).

Mus contains twenty-seven species, widely distributed

over the Continent and Tasmania.

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

Diemen's Land,' vol. i. p. 301:

"The Secretary read the following extracts from a letter of the

Rev. W. Colenso to Ronald C. Gunn, Esq., of Launceston, dated

Waitangi, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, 4th September, 1850:--

`I have procured two specimens of the ancient, and all

but quite extinct, New Zealand Rat, which until just now

(and notwithstanding all my endeavours, backed, too, by large

rewards) I never saw. It is without doubt a true Mus,

smaller than our English black rat (Mus Rattus), and not

unlike it. This little animal once inhabited the plains and

Fagus forests of New Zealand in countless thousands,

and was both the common food and great delicacy of the natives--

and already it is all but quite classed among the things which

were."

1880. A. R. Wallace, `Island Life,' p. 445:

"The Maoris say that before Europeans came to their country a

forest rat abounded, and was largely used for food . . .

Several specimens have been caught . . . which have been

declared by the natives to be the true Kiore Maori--as they

term it; but these have usually proved on examination to be

either the European black rat or some of the native Australian

rats . . . but within the last few years many skulls of a rat

have been obtained from the old Maori cooking-places and from

a cave associated with moa bones, and Captain Hutton, who has

examined them, states that they belong to a true Mus, but

differ from the Mus rattus."

<hw>Rata</hw>, n. Maori name for two New Zealand erect

or sub-scandent flowering trees, often embracing trunks of

forest trees and strangling them: the Northern Rata,

Metrosideros robusta, A. Cunn., and the Southern Rata,

M. lucida, Menz., both of the N.O. Myrtaceae.

The tree called by the Maoris Aka, which is another

species of Metrosederos (M. florida), is also often

confused with the Rata by bushmen and settlers.

In Maori, the adj. rata means red-hot, and there

may be a reference to the scarlet appearance of the flower in

full bloom. The timber of the Rata is often known as

Ironwood, or Ironbark. The trees rise to sixty

feet in height; they generally begin by trailing downwards from

the seed deposited on the bark of some other tree near its top.

When the trailing branches reach the ground they take root

there and sprout erect. For full account of the habit of the

trees, see quotation 1867 (Hochstetter), 1879 (Moseley), and

1889 (Kirk).

1843. E. Dieffenbach, `Travels in New Zealand,' p. 224:

"The venerable rata, often measuring forty feet in

circumference and covered with scarlet flowers--while its stem

is often girt with a creeper belonging to the same family

(metrosideros hypericifolia?)."

1848. Rev. R. Taylor, `Leaf from the Natural History of New

Zealand,' p. 21:

"Rata, a tree; at first a climber; it throws out aerial roots;

clasps the tree it clings to and finally kills it, becoming a

large tree (metrosideros robusta). A hard but not durable

wood."

1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' canto 1, p. 14:

"Unlike the neighbouring rata cast,

And tossing high its heels in air."

1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 135:

"The Rata (Metrosideros robusta), the trunk of which,

frequently measuring forty feet in circumference, is always

covered with all sorts of parasitical plants, and the crown

of which bears bunches of scarlet blossoms."

1872. A. Domett, `Ranolf,' p. 264:

"Nay, not the Rata! howsoe'er it bloomed,

Paling the crimson sunset; for you know,

Its twining arms and shoots together grow

Around the trunk it clasps, conjoining slow

Till they become consolidate, and show

An ever-thickening sheath that kills at last

The helpless tree round which it clings so fast."

1875. T. Laslett, `Timber and Timber Trees,' p. 310:

"The Rata-Tree (Metrosideros robusta). This magnificent

tree. . . . height 80 to 100 feet . . . a clear stem to 30

and even 40 feet . . . very beautiful crimson polyandrous

flowers . . . wood red, hard, heavy, close-grained, strong,

and not difficult to work."

1879. H. n. Moseley, `Notes of a Naturalist on Challenger,'

p. 278:

One of the most remarkable trees . . . is the Rata. . . .

This, though a Myrtaceous plant, has all the habits of the

Indian figs, reproducing them in the closest manner. It starts

from a seed dropped in the fork of a tree, and grows downward

to reach the ground; then taking root there, and gaining

strength, chokes the supporting tree and entirely destroys it,

forming a large trunk by fusion of its many stems.

Nevertheless, it occasionally grows directly from the soil,

and then forms a trunk more regular in form."

1883. F. S. Renwick, `Betrayed,' p. 39:

"That bark shall speed where crimson ratas gleam."

1888. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iii.

p. 210:

"The foliage of many of the large trees is quite destroyed by

the crimson flowering rata, the king of parasites, which having

raised itself into the upper air by the aid of some unhappy

pine, insinuates its fatal coils about its patron, until it has

absorbed trunk and branch into itself, and so gathered

sufficient strength to stand unaided like the chief of forest

trees, flaunting in crimson splendour."

1889. T. Kirk, `Forest Flora of New Zealand,' p. 263:

"It is invariably erect, never climbing, although bushmen and

settlers frequently state that it climbs the loftiest trees,

and sooner or later squeezes them to death in its iron clasp.

In proof of this they assert that, when felling huge ratas,

they often find a dead tree in the centre of the rata: this is

a common occurrence, but it by no means follows that this

species is a climber. This error is simply due to imperfect

observation, which has led careless observers to confuse

Metrosideros florida [the Akal which is a true climber,

with M. robusta."

1892. `Otago Witness,' Nov. 10 [`Native Trees']:

"Rata, or Ironwood. It would be supposed that almost every

colonist who has seen the rata in bloom would desire to possess

a plant."

1893. `The Argus,' Feb. 4 [Leading Article]:

"The critic becomes to the original author what the New Zealand

rata is to the kauri. That insidious vine winds itself round

the supporting trunk and thrives on its strength and at its

expense, till finally it buries it wholly from sight and

flaunts itself aloft, a showy and apparently independent tree."

<hw>Rat-tail Grass</hw>, n. name given to--

(1) Ischaemum laxum, R. Br., N.O. Gramineae.

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 92:

"Rat-tail Grass. An upright, slender growing grass; found

throughout the colony, rather coarse, but yielding a fair

amount of feed, which is readily eaten by cattle."

(2) Sporobolus indicus, R. Br., N.O. Gramineae.

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 109:

"Rat-tail Grass. A fine, open, pasture grass, found throughout

the colonies. Its numerous penetrating roots enable it to

resist severe drought. It yields a fair amount of fodder, much

relished by stock, but is too coarse for sheep. The seeds form

the principal food of many small birds. It has been suggested

as a paper-making material."

[See Grass.]

<hw>Raupo</hw>, n. Maori name for a New Zealand

bulrush, Typha angustifolia, Linn. The leaves are used

for building native houses. The pollen, called

Punga-Punga (q.v.), was collected and made into bread

called pua. The root was also eaten. It is not endemic

in New Zealand, but is known in many parts, and was called by

the aborigines of Australia, Wonga, and in Europe

"Asparagus of the Cossacks." Other names for it are

Bulrush, Cat's Tail, Reed Mace, and

Cooper's Flag.

1827. Augustus Earle, `Narrative of Nine Months' Residence in

New Zealand,' `New Zealand Reader,' p. 67:

"Another party was collecting rushes, which grow plentifully in

the neighbourhood, and are called raupo."

1833. Henry Williams's Diary, `Carleton's Life,' p. 151:

"The Europeans were near us in a raupo whare [rush-house]."

1835. W. Yate, `Account of New Zealand,' p. 205:

"To engage the natives to build raupo, that is, rush-houses."

1842. W. R. Wade, `A Journey in the North Island of New

Zealand,' `New Zealand Reader,' p. 122:

"The raupo, the reed-mace of New Zealand, always grows in

swampy ground. The leaves or blades when full grown are cut

and laid out to dry, forming the common building material with

which most native houses are constructed."

1843. `An Ordinance for imposing a tax on Raupo Houses,

Session II. No. xvii. of the former Legislative Council of

New Zealand':

[From A. Domett's collection of Ordinances, 1850.]

"Section 2. . . . there shall be levied in respect of every

building constructed wholly or in part of raupo, nikau,

toitoi, wiwi, kakaho, straw or thatch of any

description [ . . . L20]."

1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i.

p. 380:

"These [the walls], nine feet high and six inches thick, were

composed of neatly packed bunches of raupo, or bulrushes, lined

inside with the glazed reeds of the tohe-tohe, and outside with

the wiwi or fine grass."

1860. R. Donaldson, `Bush Lays,' p. 5:

"Entangled in a foul morass,

A raupo swamp, one name we know."

1864. F. E. Maning (Pakeha Maori), `The War in the North,'

p. 16:

"Before a war or any other important matter, the natives used

to have recourse to divination by means of little miniature

darts made of rushes or reeds, or often of the leaf of the

cooper's flag (raupo)."

1867. F. Hochstetter, `New Zealand,' p. 308:

"The favourite material of the Maoris for building purposes

is Raupo (Typha), a kind of flag or bulrush, which

grows in great abundance in swampy places."

1877. Anon., `Colonial Experiences, or Incidents of

Thirty-Four Years in New Zealand,' p. 10:

"It was thatched with raupo or native bulrush, and had sides

and interior partitions of the same material."

<hw>Raven</hw>, n. English bird-name. The Australian

species is Corvus coronoides, Vig. and Hors.

<hw>Razor-grinder</hw>, n. a bird-name, Seisura

inquieta, Lath. Called also Dishwasher and

Restless Fly-catcher. See Fly-catcher.

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

p. 159:

"Neither must you be astonished on hearing the razor-grinder

ply his vocation in the very depths of our solitudes; for here

he is a flying instead of a walking animal."

1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 87:

"Seisura Inquieta, Restless Flycatcher; the Grinder

of the Colonists of Swan River and New South Wales."

1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 332:

"The razor-grinder, fitly so called from making a grinding

noise as it wavers in one position a foot or two from the

ground."

<hw>Ready up</hw>, v. See quotation.

1893. `The Age,' Nov. 25, p. 13, col. 2:

"Mr. Purees: A statement has been made that is very

serious. It has been said that a great deal has been `readied

up' for the jury by the present commissioners. That is a

charge which, if true, amounts to embracery.

"His Honor: I do not know what `readying up' means.

"Mr. Purves: It is a colonial expression, meaning that

something is prepared with an object. If you `ready up' a

racehorse, you are preparing to lose, or if you `ready up'

a pack of cards, you prepare it for dealing certain suits."

<hw>Red Bass</hw>, n. a fish of Moreton Bay (q.v.),

Mesoprion superbus, Castln., family Percidae.

<hw>Redberry</hw>, n. name given to Australian plants

of the genus Rhagodia, bearing spikes or panicles of

red berries. Called also Seaberry.

Weka R. (N.Z. See <i>Weka</i>.)--