Austral English Part 17

"They seemed to be covered with cypresses and beef-wood."

1846. C. Holtzapffel, `Turning,' vol. i. p. 74:

"Beef wood. Red-coloured woods are sometimes thus named, but it is generally applied to the Botany-Bay oak."

1852. G. C. Munday, `Our Antipodes' (edition 1855), p. 219:

"A s.h.i.+ngle of the beef-wood looks precisely like a raw beef-steak."

1856. Capt. H. Butler Stoney, `A Residence in Tasmania,' p. 265:

"We now turn our attention to some trees of a very different nature, Casuarina stricta and quadrivalvis, commonly called He and She oak, and sometimes known by the name of beef-wood, from the wood, which is very hard and takes a high polish, exhibiting peculiar maculae spots and veins scattered throughout a finely striated tint ..."

1868. Paxton's `Botanical Dictionary,' p. 116:

"Casuarinaceae,or Beefwoods. Curious branching, leafless trees or shrubs, with timber of a high order, which is both hard and heavy, and of the colour of raw beef, whence the vulgar name."

1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants.' (See `Index of vernacular names.')

Belar, n. (various spellings, Belah, billa, beela, beal), an aboriginal name for the tree Casuarina glauca. The colonists call the tree Bull-oak, probably from this native name.

1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 18:

"A voice in the beela grows wild in its wail."

1868. J. A. B., `Meta,' p. 19:

"With heartfelt glee we hail the camp, And blazing fire of beal."

[Footnote]: "Aboriginal name of the gum-tree wood."

1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 110:

"These scrubs ... sometimes crown the watersheds as `belar.'"

Bell-bird, n. name given to several birds, from their note, like the tinkling of a bell. In Australia, a Honey-eater, Myzantha melanophrys, Gould ('Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 80), the `Australian Bell-bird' (the same bird as Myzantha flavirostris, V. and H.), chiefly found in New South Wales; also Oreoica gutturalis, Gould (vol. ii. pl. 81), the `Bell-bird' of Western Australia; and Oreoica cristata, Lewin. In New Zealand, Anthornis melanura, Sparrm., chief Maori names, Korimako (q.v.) in North, and Makomako in South. Buller gives ten Maori names. The settlers call it Moko (q.v.).

There is also a Bell-bird in Brazil.

1774. J. Hawkesworth, `Voyages,' vol. ii. p. 390 [Journal of Jan. 17, 1770):

"In the morning we were awakened by the singing of the birds; the number was incredible, and they seemed to strain their throats in emulation of each other. This wild melody was infinitely superior to any that we had ever heard of the same kind; it seemed to be like small bells most exquisitely tuned, and perhaps the distance, and the water between, might be no small advantage to the sound. Upon enquiry we were informed that the birds here always began to sing about two hours after midnight, and continuing their music till sunrise were, like our nightingales, silent the rest of the day."

[This celebrated descriptive pa.s.sage by Dr. Hawkesworth is based upon the following original from `Banks's Journal,' which now, after an interval of 122 years, has just been published in London, edited by Sir J. D. Hooker.]

1770. J. Banks, `Journal,' Jan. 17 (edition 1896):

"I was awakened by the singing of the birds ash.o.r.e, from whence we are distant not a quarter of a mile. Their numbers were certainly very great. They seemed to strain their throats with emulation, and made, perhaps, the most melodious wild music I have ever heard, almost imitating small bells, but with the most tunable silver sound imaginable, to which, maybe, the distance was no small addition. On inquiring of our people, I was told that they had observed them ever since we had been here, and that they began to sing about one or two in the morning, and continue till sunrise, after which they are silent all day, like our nightingales."

1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,'

c. viii. p. 84:

"The cry of the bell-bird seems to be unknown here."

1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' vol. xv. p. 319:

"Mr. Caley thus observes on this bird: `Dell-bird or Bell-bird.

So called by the colonists. It is an inhabitant of bushes, where its disagreeable noise (disagreeable at least to me) [but not to the poets] may be continually heard; but nowhere more so than on going up the harbour to Paramatta, when a little above the Flats.'"

1835. T. B. Wilson, `Voyage Round the World,' p. 259:

"During the night, the bell bird supplied, to us, the place of the wakeful nightingale ... a pleasing surprise, as we had hitherto supposed that the birds in New Holland were not formed for song."

1839. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' p. 23:

"Every bough seemed to throng with feathered musicians: the melodious chimes of the bell-bird were specially distinct."

1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 102:

"Look at the bell-bird's nest, admire the two spotted salmon coloured eggs."

Ibid. ('Verses written whilst we lived in tents'), p. 171:

"Through the Eucalyptus shade, Pleased could watch the bell-bird's flutter, Blending with soft voice of waters The delicious tones they utter."

1846. Lady Martin, `Bush journey, 1846, Our Maoris,' p. 93:

"We did hear the birds next morning as Captain Cook had described --first the bell-bird gave its clear, full note, and then came such a jargoning as made one's heart glad."

1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 81:

"Oreoica gutturalis, Gould. Crested Oreoica.

Bell-bird, Colonists of Swan River [Western Australia]... I find the following remarks in my note-book-- `Note, a very peculiar piping whistle, sounding like weet-weet-weet-weet-oo, the last syllable fully drawn out and very melodious... . In Western Australia, where the real Bell-bird is never found, this species has had that appellation given to it,--a term which must appear ill-applied to those who have heard the note of the true Bell-bird of the brushes of New South Wales, whose tinkling sound so nearly resembles that of a distant sheep-bell as occasionally to deceive the ears of a practised shepherd."

1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 93:

"Every now and then we stood, by common consent, silent and almost breathless, to listen to the bell-bird, a dingy little fellow, nearly as large as a thrush with the plumage of a chaffinch, but with such a note! How can I make you hear its wild, sweet, plaintive tone, as a little girl of the party said `just as if it had a bell in its throat;' but indeed it would require a whole peal of silver bells to ring such an exquisite chime."

1868. F. Napier Broome, `Canterbury Rhymes,' second edition, p. 108:

"Where the bell-bird sets solitudes ringing, Many times I have heard and thrown down My lyre in despair of all singing."

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 21:

"Listen to the bell-bird. Ping, ping, sounds through the vast hushed temple of nature."

1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 81:

"The bell-bird, with metallic but mellow pipe, warns the wanderer that he is near water in some sequestered nook."