Austral English Part 206

"It was supposed that Port Jackson alone had this shark ...

It has since been found in many of the coast bays of Australia."

Port-Jackson Thrush, n. the best known bird among the Australian Shrike-thrushes (q.v.), Colluricincla harmonica, Lath.; called also the Austral Thrush, and Harmonic Thrush by Latham.

It is also the C. cinerea of Vigors and Horsfield and the t.u.r.dus harmonicus of Latham, and it has received various other scientific and vernacular names; Colonel Legge has now a.s.signed to it the name of Grey Shrike-Thrush.

Gould called it the "Harmonious Colluricincla."

1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 157:

"The Port-Jackson thrush, of which a plate is annexed, inhabits the neighbourhood of Port Jackson. The top of head blueish-grey; back is a fine chocolate brown; wings and tail lead-colour; under part dusky white... . The bill, dull yellow; legs brown."

1822. John Latham, `General History of Birds,' vol. v.

p. 124:

"Austral Thrush. [A full description.] Inhabits New South Wales."

[Latham describes two other birds, the Port Jackson Thrush and the Harmonic Thrush, and he uses different scientific names for them. But Gould, regarding Latham's specimens as all of the same species, takes all Latham's scientific and vernacular names as synonyms for the same bird.]

1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 74:

"The Colluricincla harmonica is one of the oldest known of the Australian birds, having been described in Latham's `Index Ornithologicus,' figured in White's `Voyage' and included in the works of all subsequent writers."

Port-Macquarie Pine. See Pine.

Post-and-Rail Tea, slang name for strong bush-tea: so called because large bits of the tea, or supposed tea, float about in the billy, which are compared by a strong imagination to the posts and rails of the wooden fence so frequent in Australia.

1851. `The Australasian' (a Quarterly), p. 298:

"Hyson-skin and post-and-rail tea have been superseded by Mocha, claret, and cognac."

1855. G. C. Mundy, `Our Antipodes,' p. 163:

"A hot beverage in a tin pot, which richly deserved the colonial epithet of `post-and-rail' tea, for it might well have been a decoction of `split stuff,' or `ironbark shingles,' for any resemblance it bore to the Chinese plant."

1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' c. i. p. 28:

"The shepherd's wife kindly gave us the invariable mutton-chop and damper and some post-and-rail tea."

1883. Keighley, `Who are you?' p. 36:

"Then took a drink of tea... .

Such as the swagmen in our goodly land Have with some humour named the `post-and-rail.'"

Potato-Fern, n. a fern (Marattia fraxinea, Smith) with a large part edible, sc. the basal scales of the frond. Called also the Horseshoe-fern.

Potato, Native, n. a sort of Yam, Gastrodia sesamoides, R. Br., N.O. Orchideae.

1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 131:

"Produces bulb-tubers growing one out of another, of the size, and nearly the form, of kidney potatoes; the lowermost is attached by a bundle of thick fleshy fibres to the root of the tree from which it derives its nourishment. These roots are roasted and eaten by the aborigines; in taste they resemble beet-root, and are sometimes called in the colony native potatoes."

1857. F. R. Nixon, `Cruise of the Beacon,' p. 27:

"And the tubers of several plants of this tribe were largely consumed by them, particularly those of Gastrodi sessamoides [sic], the native potato, so called by the colonists, though never tasted by them, and having not the most remote relation to the plant of that name, except in a little resemblance of the tubers, in shape and appearance, to the kidney potato."

Potoroo, n. aboriginal name for a Kangaroo-Rat (q.v.). See also Potorous and Roo.

1790. John White, `Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales,'

p. 286:

"The Poto Roo, or Kangaroo Rat." [Figure and description.]

"It is of a brownish grey colour, something like the brown or grey rabbit, with a tinge of a greenish yellow. It has a pouch on the lower part of its belly."

Potorous, n. the scientific name of the genus of the Kangaroo-Rats (q.v.). The aboriginal name was Potoroo; see Roo. They are also called Rat-Kangaroos.

Pouched-lion, or Marsupial Lion, n.

a large extinct Phalanger (q.v.), Thylacoleo carnifex, Owen. The popular name was given under the idea, derived from the presence of an enormous cutting-tooth, that the animal was of fierce carnivorous habits. But it is more generally regarded as closely allied to the phalangers, who are almost entirely vegetarians.

Pouched-Mouse, n. the vernacular name adopted for species of the genera Phascologale (q.v.), Sminthopsis, Dasyuroides and Antechinomys.

They are often called Kangaroo-mice (q.v.).

The species are--

Brush-tailed Pouched-Mouse-- Phascologale penicillata, Shaw.

Chestnut-necked P.-M.-- P. thorbechiana, Schl.

Crest-tailed P.-M.-- P. cristicauda, Krefft.

Fat-tailed P.-M.-- P. macdonnellensis, Spencer.

Freckled P.-M.--- P. apicalis, Gray.

Lesser-tailed P.-M.-- P. calura, Gould.

Little P.-M.-- P. minima, Geoff.

Long-tailed P.-M.-- P. longicaudata, Schleg.

Orange-bellied P.-M.-- P. doria, Thomas.

Pigmy P.-M.-- P. minutissima, Gould.

Red-tailed P.-M.-- P. wallacii, Grey.

Swainson's P.-M.-- P. swainsoni, Water.

Yellow-footed Pouched-Mouse-- Phascologale flavipes, Water.

The Narrow-footed Pouched-Mice belong to the genus Sminthopsis, and differ from the Phascologales in being entirely terrestrial in their habits, whereas the latter are usually arboreal; the species are--