In New Zealand, it is now only specifically applied to the--_Austral English

Bush Warbler--

Gerygone silvestris, Potts.

Chatham Island W.--

G. albofrontata, Gray.

Grey W.--

G. flaviventris, Gray; Maori name, Riro-riro.

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

119:

"Grey Warbler (Gerygone flaviventris) also belongs

to an Australian genus. It is remarkable for its curious and

beautifully formed nest, and as being the foster-parent to the

Longtailed Cuckoo, which lays its eggs in the Warbler's nest."

<hw>Warden</hw>, n. The term is applied specifically to

the Government officer, with magisterial and executive powers,

in charge of a goldfield.

1861. Mrs. Meredith, `Over the Straits,' c. iv. p. 141:

"The chief official in a digging settlement, the padra [sic] of

the district, is entitled the warden."

<hw>Warehou</hw>, n. Maori name for

the fish Neptonemus brama, Gunth., called

Snotgall-Trevally in Tasmania, and called

also Sea-Bream. See Trevally.

<hw>Warrener</hw>, n. a name applied by Tasmanian

children to the larger specimens of the shells called

Mariners (q.v.). The name is an adaptation,

by the law of Hobson-Jobson, from a Tasmanian aboriginal word,

Yawarrenah, given by Milligan (`Vocabulary,' 1890), as

used by tribes, from Oyster Bay to Pittwater, for the ear-shell

(Haliotis). The name has thus passed from shell to

shell, and in its English application has passed on also to

the marine shell, Turbo undulatus.

<hw>Warrigal</hw>, n. and adj. an aboriginal

word, originally meaning a Dog. Afterwards extended as an

adjective to mean wild; then used for a wild

horse, wild natives, and in bush-slang for a

worthless man. The following five quotations from vocabularies

prove the early meaning of the word in the Port Jackson

district, and its varying uses at later dates elsewhere.

1793. Governor Hunter, `Port Jackson,' p. 411:

"Warregal--a large dog."

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

Wales,' p. 614 [Vocab.]:

"Wor-re-gal--dog."

1859. D. Bunce, `Language of Aborigines of Victoria,' p. 17:

"Ferocious, savage, wild--warragul." (adj.)

Ibid. p. 46:

"Wild savage--worragal." (noun.) 1879.

Wyatt, `Manners of Adelaide Tribes,' p. 21:

"Warroo=wild."

The quotations which follow are classed under the different

meanings borne by the word.

(1) A Wild Dog.

1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 153:

"I have heard that the dingo, warragal or native dog,

does not hunt in packs like the wolf and jackal."

1880. J. Holdsworth, `Station Hunting':

"To scoop its grassless grave

Past reach of kites and prowling warrigals."

1887. `Illustrated Australian News,' March 5:

[A picture of two dingoes, and beneath them the following

quotation from Kendall--]:

"The warrigal's lair is pent in bare

Black rocks, at the gorge's mouth."

1888. `Australian Ballads and Rhymes' (edition Sladen),,

p. 297:

"The following little poem, entitled `The Warrigal' (Wild Dog)

will prove that he (H. Kendall) observed animal life as

faithfully as still life and landscape:

`The sad marsh-fowl and the lonely owl

Are heard in the fog-wreath's grey,

Where the Warrigal wakes, and listens and takes

To the woods that shelter the prey.'"

1890. G. A. Sala, in `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 1:

"But at present warrigal means a wild dog."

1891. J. B. O`Hara, `Songs of the South,' p. 22:

"There, night by night, I heard the call

The inharmonious warrigal

Made, when the darkness swiftly drew

Its curtains o'er the starry blue."

(2) A Horse.

1881. `The Australasian,' May 21, p. 647, col. 4 ["How we

ran in `The Black Warragal'": Ernest G. Millard, Bimbowrie,

South Australia]:

"You must let me have Topsail today, Boss,.

If we're going for that Warrigal mob."

1888. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 44:

"Six wild horses--warrigals or brombies, as they are

called--have been driven down, corralled, and caught.

They have fed on the leaves of the myall and stray bits of

salt-bush. After a time they are got within the traces.

They are all young, and they look not so bad."

1890. `The Argus, `June 14, p.4, col. 2:

"Mike will fret himself to death in a stable, and maybe kill

the groom. Mike's a warrigal he is."

(3) Applied to Aborigines. [See Bunce quotation, 1859.]

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xii. p. 249:

"He's a good shot, and these warrigal devils know it."

1896. Private Letter from Station near Palmerville, North

Queensland:

"Warrigal. In this Cook district, and I believe in many

others, a blackfellow who has broken any of the most stringent

tribal laws, which renders him liable to be killed on sight by

certain other blacks, is warri, an outlaw."

(4) As adjective meaning wild.

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. viii. p. 68:

"Here's a real good wholesome cabbage--warrigal cabbage the

shepherds call it."

<hw>Warrina</hw>, n. See Warrener.

<hw>Washdirt</hw>, n. any alluvial deposit from which

gold is obtained by washing; or "the auriferous gravel, sand,

clay, or cement, in which the greatest proportion of gold is

found." (Brough Smyth's `Glossary,' 1869.) Often called

dirt (q.v.).

1896. `Melbourne Argus,' April 30, p. 7, col. 6:

"In colour the washdirt is of a browner and more iron-stained

appearance than the white free wash met across the creek."

<hw>Waterbush</hw>, n. an Australian tree,

i.q. Native Daphne. See Daphne.

<hw>Watergrass</hw>, n. a Tasmanian name for Manna

grass, Poa fluitans, Scop., N.O. Gramineae.

<hw>Water-Gum</hw>, n. See Gum.

<hw>Water-hole</hw>, n. The word pond is seldom

used in Australia. Any pond, natural or artificial, is called

a Water-hole. The word also denotes a depression or

cavity in the bed of an intermittent river, which remains full

during the summer when the river itself is dry.

1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. c. ii. p. 80:

"There was no smoke to betray a water-hole."

1853. S. Sidney, `Three Colonies of Australia,' p. 245:

"The deep pools, called colonially `water-holes.'"

1862. F. J. Jobson, `Australia,' c. vii. p. 181:

"`Water-holes' appeared at intervals, but they seemed to have

little water in them."

1864. J. McDouall Stuart, `Explorations in Australia,' p. 58:

"About four miles from last night's camp the chain of large

water-holes commences, and continues beyond tonight's camp."

1875. Wood and Lapham, `Waiting for the Mail,' p. 15:

"The water-hole was frozen over, so she was obliged to go on

farther, where the water ran."

1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), June 26, p. 94, col. 1:

"A bottomless water-hole, about 300 feet wide, exists at

Maryvale homestead, Gipps Land."

1878. Mrs. H. Jones, `Broad Outlines of Long Years in

Australia,' p. 97:

"`That will be another water-hole.' `What an ugly word . . .

why don't you call them pools or ponds?' `I can't tell you why

they bear such a name, but we never call them anything else,

and if you begin to talk of pools or ponds you'll get well

laughed at.'"

1896. `The Argus,' March 30, p. 6, col. 9:

[The murderer] has not since been heard of. Dams and

waterholes have been dragged . . . but without result."

<hw>Water-Lily</hw>. See Lily.

<hw>Water-Mole</hw>, i.q. Platypus (q.v.).

<hw>Water-Myrtle</hw>, an Australian tree, Tristania

neriifolia, R. Br., N.O. Myrtaceae.

<hw>Water-Tree</hw>, n. a tree from which water is

obtained by tapping the roots, Hakea leucoptera, R. Br.,

N.O. Proteaceae; called also Needle-bush. The

quotation describes the process, but does not name the tree.

1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' p. 199:

"I expressed my thirst and want of water. Looking as if they

understood me, they [the aboriginals] hastened to resume their

work, and I discovered that they dug up the roots for the sake

of drinking the sap . . . They first cut these roots into

billets, and then stripped off the bark or rind, which they

sometimes chew, after which, holding up the billet, and

applying one end to the mouth, they let the juice drop into

it."

<hw>Wattle</hw>, n. The name is given to very many of

the various species of Acacia (q.v.), of which there

are about 300 in Australia, besides those in Tasmania and

New Zealand. There is no English tree of that name, but the

English word, which is common, signifies "a twig, a flexible

rod, usually a hurdle; . . . the original sense is something

twined or woven together; hence it came to mean a hurdle, woven

with twigs; Anglo-Saxon, watel, a hurdle." (Skeat.)

In England the supple twigs of the osier-willow are used for

making such hurdles. The early colonists found the long pliant

boughs and shoots of the indigenous Acacias a ready

substitute for the purpose, and they used them for constructing

the partitions and outer-walls of the early houses, by forming

a "wattling" and daubing it with plaster or clay. (See

Wattle-and-dab.) The trees thus received the name of

Wattle-trees, quickly contracted to Wattle. Owing to

its beautiful, golden, sweet-scented clusters of flowers,

the Wattle is the favourite tree of the Australian poets

and painters. The bark is very rich in tannin. (See

Wattle-bark.) The tree was formerly called

Mimosa (q.v.). The following list of vernacular names

of the various Wattles is compiled from Maiden's `Useful

Native Plants'; it will be seen that the same vernacular name

is sometimes applied to several different species--

Black Wattle--

Acacia binervata, De C., of Illawarra and South.

A. decurrens, Willd., older colonists of New South

Wales.

A. cunninghamii, Hook.

A. nervifolia, Cunn.

Broad-leaved W.--

A. pycnantha, Benth.

Broom W.--

A. calamifolia, Sweet.

Feathery W.--

A. decurrens, Willd.

Golden W. (q.v.)--

A. pycnantha, Benth.; in Victoria, South Australia,

and Tasmania. It is also called Green Wattle, and also,

for the sake of distinction between some other tan-bark wattles,

the Broad-leaved Wattle.

A. longifolia, Willd.; in New South Wales and

Queensland.

Green W.--

A. decurrens, Willd., older colonists New South Wales.

A. pycnantha, Benth.

A. discolor, Willd.; so called in Tasmania, and called

also there River Wattle.

Hickory W.--

A. aulacocarpa, Cunn.

Prickly W.--

A. sentis, F. v. M.

A. juniperina, Willd.

Silver W.--

A. dealbata, Link. Silver Wattle,

owing to the whiteness of the trunk, and the silvery

or ashy hue of its young foliage.

A. decurrens, Willd.

A. melanoxylon, R. Br. (Blackwood).

A. podalyriafolia, Cunn.; called Silver Wattle,

as it has foliage of a more or less grey, mealy, or silvery

appearance.

Weeping W.--

A. saligna, Wendl.

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

p. 201:

"The acacias are the common wattles of this country, their bark

affording excellent tan, as well as an extract to export to

England; while from their trunks and branches clear

transparent beads of the purest Arabian gum are seen suspended

in the dry spring weather, which our young currency bantlings

eagerly search after and regale themselves with."

1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean

Society,' vol. xv. p. 328:

"One of my specimens . . . I shot in a green wattle-tree close

to Government House."

1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 23:

"The black and silver Wattle (the Mimosa), are trees

used in housework and furniture."

1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 134:

"Leptospermum lanigerum, hoary tea-tree, Acacia

decurrens, and black wattle; Corraea alba, Cape

Barren tea. The leaves of these have been used as substitutes

for tea in the colonies."

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

c. iv. p. 132:

"Black wattle . . . indication of good soil . . . produce

gum."

1850. J. B. Clutterbuck, `Port Phillip in 1849.' p. 32:

"Few, indeed, of the native Australian flowers emit any perfume

except the golden and silver wattle (the Mimosae tribe):

these charm the senses, and fully realize the description we

read of in the `Arabian Nights' Entertainments' of those

exotics, the balmy perfume of which is exhaled far and near."

1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 337:

"These trees were termed `Wattles,' from being used, in the

early days of the colony, for forming a network or wattling of

the supple twigs for the reception of the plaster in the

partitions of the houses."

1862. W. Archer, `Products of Tasmania,' p. 40:

"Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata, Lindl.), so called

from the whiteness of the trunk and the silvery green of

the foliage."

1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Twenty-three Years in Tasmania and

Victoria,' p. 33:

"The mimosa, or wattle, . . . ushers in the Spring with its

countless acres of charming and luxuriant yellow and highly

scented blossom . . . The tanning properties of its bark are

nearly equal in value to those of the English oak."

1867. A. G. Middleton, `Earnest,' p. 132:

"The maidens were with golden wattles crowned."

1877. F. V. Mueller, `Botanic Teachings,' p. 24:

"The generic name [Acacia] is so familiarly known, that the

appellation `Wattle' might well be dispensed with. Indeed the

name Acacia is in full use in works on travels and in many

popular writings for the numerous Australian species."

1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 837:

"Called `Silver Wattle.' The bark, which is used for tanning,

is said to give a light colour to leather; value, L3 10s. per

ton."

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 43:

"A dense clump of wattles, a sort of mimosa--tall, feathery,

graceful trees, with leaves like a willow and sweet-scented

yellow flowers."

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 349:

"The ordinary name for species of the genus Acacia in

the colonies is `Wattle.' The name is an old English one, and

signifies the interlacing of boughs together to form a kind of

wicker-work. The aboriginals used them in the construction of

their abodes, and the early colonists used to split the stems

of slender species into laths for `wattling' the walls of their

rude habitations."

1890. Tasma, `In her Earliest Youth,' p. 122:

"It pleased him yearly to see the fluffy yellow balls bedeck

his favourite trees. One would have said in the morning that

a shower of golden shot had bespangled them in the night-time.

Late in the autumn, too, an adventurous wattle would sometimes

put forth some semi-gilded sprays--but sparsely, as if under

protest."

1896. J. B. O`Hara, `Songs of the South' (Second Series),

p. 22:

"Yet the spring shed blossoms around the ruin,

The pale pink hues of the wild briar rose,

The wild rose wasted by winds that blew in

The wattle bloom that the sun-god knows."

<hw>Wattle-and-Dab</hw>, a rough mode of architecture, very

common in Australia at an early date. The phrase and its

meaning are Old English. It was originally

Wattle-and-daub. The style, but not the word, is

described in the quotation from Governor Phillip, 1789.

1789. Governor Phillip, `Voyage to Botany Bay,' p. 124:

"The huts of the convicts were still more slight, being

composed only of upright posts, wattled with slight twigs,

and plaistered up with clay."

1836. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 66:

"Wattle and daub. . . . You then bring home from the

bush as many sods of the black or green wattle (acacia

decurrens or affinis) as you think will suffice.

These are platted or intertwined with the upright posts in the

manner of hurdles, and afterwards daubed with mortar made of

sand or loam, and clay mixed up with a due proportion of the

strong wiry grass of the bush chopped into convenient lengths

and well beaten up with it, as a substitute for hair."

1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 201:

"The hut of the labourer was usually formed of plaited twigs

or young branches plastered over with mud, and known by the

summary definition of `wattle and dab.'"

1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 179:

"Wattles, so named originally, I conceive, from several of the

genus being much used for `wattling' fences or huts. A `wattle

and dab' but is formed, in a somewhat Robinson Crusoe style, of

stout stakes driven well into the ground, and thickly

interlaced with the tough, lithe wattle-branches, so as to make

a strong basket-work, which is then dabbed and plastered over

on both sides with tenacious clay mortar, and finally

thatched."

1879. W. J. Barry, `Up and Down,' p. 21:

"It was built of what is known as `wattle and dab,' or poles

and mud, and roofed with the bark of the gum-tree."

1883. E. M. Curr, `Recollections of Squatting,' p. 5:

"Others were of weather boards, wattle and dab, or slabs."

<hw>Wattle-bark</hw>, n. the bark of the wattle;

much used in tanning, and forms a staple export.

1875. `Spectator' (Melbourne), Aug. 14, p. 178 col. 2:

"A proprietor of land at Mount Gambier has refused L4000 for

the wattle-bark on his estate."

1877. [? Exact date lost.] `Melbourne Punch':

"What'll bark? Why, a dog'll."

1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 140:

"The bark of this species is used in tanning light skins, but

the bark is considered weak in tannin, and only worth thirty

shillings per ton in Queensland. Called `Black-wattle bark.'"

1893. `Melbourne Stock and Station Journal,' May 10 [advt.]:

"Bark.--There is a moderate inquiry for good descriptions, but

faulty are almost unsaleable:--Bundled Black Wattle, superior,

L5 to L6 per ton; do. do., average, L3 to L4 10s. per ton;

chopped Black Wattle, L5 to L6 5s. per ton; ground, approved

brands, up to L8 per ton; do., average, L5 to L6 per ton."

1896. `The Leader,' a weekly column:

"Kennel Gossip. By Wattle Bark."

<hw>Wattled Bee-eater</hw>. See Bee-eater.

<hw>Wattle-bird</hw>, n. an Australian bird, so called

from the wattles or fleshy appendages hanging to his ear. In

the Yellow species they are an inch long. The species

are--

Brush Wattle-bird--

Anelobia mellivora, Lath.

Little W.--

A. lunulata, Gould.

Red W.--

Acanthochaera carunculata, Lath.

Yellow W.--

A. inauris, Gould.

The earlier scientific names occur in the quotation, 1848.

In New Zealand, the Kokako (q.v.) is also called a

Wattle-bird, and the name used to be applied to the

Tui (q.v.).

1820. W. C. Wentworth, `Description of New South Wales,'

p. 152:

"The wattle-bird, which is about the size of a snipe,

and considered a very great delicacy."

1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv.:

"Anthochaera inauris, Wattled Honey-eater; Wattled Bird

of the Colonists of Van Diemen's Land" (pl. 54).

"A. Carunculata, Wattled Bird of the Colonists; the

Merops Carunculatus of older writers "(pl. 55).

"A. Mellivora, Vig. and Horsf., Bush Wattle Bird"

(pl. 56). "A. Lunulata, Gould, Little Wattle Bird,

Colonists of Swan River" (pl. 57).

1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. ii. p. 11:

"Kangaroo-steaks frying on the fire, with a piece of cold

beef, and a wattle-bird pie also ready on the board."

1859. D. Bunce, `Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 62:

"The notes peculiar to the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus,

or platypus, wattle-bird, and leather-head, or old soldier

bird, added in no small degree to the novelties. . . . The

wattle-bird has been not inaptly termed the `what's

o'clock,'--the leather-head the `stop-where-you-are.'"

1864. E. F. Hughes, `Portland Bay,' p. 9:

"Tedious whistle of the Wattle-bird."