Austral English Part 237

1870. A. L. Gordon, `Bush Ballads From the Wreck,' p. 24:

"Down with the slip-rails; stand back."

1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 43:

"He [a horse] would let down the slip-rails when shut into the stockyard, even if they were pegged, drawing the pegs out with his teeth."

1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 79:

"Many men rode through the sliprails and turned out their horses."

1891. Canon Goodman, `Church in Victoria during Episcopate of Bishop Perry,' p. 98:

"Some careless person had neglected to replace the slip-rails of the paddock into which his horses had been turned the previous evening."

1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 104:

"Then loudly she screamed: it was only to drown The treacherous clatter of slip-rails let down."

Sloth, Native, i.q. Native Bear.

See Bear, and Koala.

Slusher, or Slushy, n. cook's a.s.sistant at shearing-time on a station.

1890. `The Argus,' Sept.20, p.13, col. 6:

"`Sundays are the most trying days of all,' say the cuisiniers, `for then they have nothing to do but to growl.' This man's a.s.sistant is called `the slusher.'

1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 162:

"The tarboy, the cook, and the slushy, the sweeper that swept the board, The picker-up, and the penner, with the rest of the shearing horde."

1896. `The Field,' Jan. 18, p. 83, col. 1:

"He employs as many `slushies' as he thinks necessary, paying them generally L1 per week."

Slush-lamp, n. a lamp made by filling an old tin with fat and putting a rag in for wick. The word, though not exclusively Australian, is more common in the Australian bush than elsewhere. Compare English slush-horn, horn for holding grease; slush-pot, pot for holding grease, etc.

1883. J. Keighley, `Who are You?' p. 45:

"The slush-lamp shone with a smoky light."

1890. `The Argus,' Sept.20, p.13, col. 6:

"Occasionally the men will give Christy Minstrel concerts, when they illuminate the wool-shed with slush-lamps, and invite all on the station."

Smelt, n. name given, in Melbourne, to the fish Clupea vittata, Castln., family Clupeidae, or Herrings (q.v.); in New Zealand and Tasmania, to Retropinna richardsonii, Gill, family Salmonidae.

Its young are called Whitebait (q.v.). The Derwent Smelt is a Tasmanian fish, Haplochiton sealii, family Haplochitonidae, fishes with an adipose fin which represent the salmonoids in the Southern Hemisphere; Prototroctes is the only other genus of the family known (see Grayling). Haplochiton is also found in the cold lat.i.tudes of South America.

Sminthopsis, n. the scientific name for the genus of Narrow-footed Pouched Mice, which, like the English field-mice, are entirely terrestrial in their habits.

See Pouched Mouse. In Homer's' Iliad,' Bk. I. ver. 39, Smintheus is an epithet of Apollo. It is explained as "mouse-killer," from sminthos, a field-mouse, said to be a Cretan word.

Smoke, v. (slang). See quotation.

1893. `Sydney Morning Herald,' June 26, p. 8, col. 8:

"He said to the larrikins, `You have done for him now; you have killed him.' `What!' said one of them, `do not say we were here. Let us smoke.' `Smoke,' it may be explained, is the slang for the `push' to get away as fast as possible."

Smooth Holly, n. See Holly.

Snailey, n. bullock with horn slightly curled.

1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. ix. p. 68:

"Snaileys and poleys, old and young, coa.r.s.e and fine, they were a mixed herd in every sense."

1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 133:

"There's a snaily Wallanbah bullock I haven't seen this two years."

Snake, n. The Australian land snakes belong princ.i.p.ally to the four families, Typhlopidae, Boidae, Colubridae, and Elapidae. The proportion of venomous to non-venomous species increases from north to south, the five species known in Tasmania being all venomous. The smallest forms, such as the "blind" or "worm" snakes, are only a few inches in length, while the largest Python may reach a length of perhaps eighteen feet.

Various popular names have been given to different species in different colonies, the same name being unfortunately not infrequently applied to quite distinct species. The more common forms are as follows:--

Black Snake.

Name applied in Australia to Pseudechis porphyriacus, Shaw, which is more common in the warmer parts, and comparatively rare in the south of Victoria, and not found in Tasmania. In the latter the name is sometimes given to dark-coloured varieties of Hoplocephalus curtus, and in Victoria to those of H. superbus. The characteristic colour is black or black-brown above and reddish beneath, but it can be at once distinguished from specimens of H. superbus, which not infrequently have this colour, by the presence of a double series of plates at the hinder end, and a single series at the anterior end of the tail, whereas in the other species named there is only a single row along the whole length of the tail underneath.

1799. D. Collins, `Account of New South Wales' (edition 1802), vol. ii. p. 189 [Ba.s.s Diary at the Derwent, Tasmania]:

"The most formidable among the reptiles was the black snake with venomous fangs."

[This refers to some species of Hoplocephalus, and not to the Australian Black Snake, which does not occur in Tasmania.]

Black and white ringed Snake.

Name applied to Vermicella annulata, Gray, the characteristic colouration of which consists of a series of alternating dark and light rings. It is found especially in the dry, warmer parts of the interior.

Brown Snake.

Name given to three species of the genus Diemenia-- (1) the Common Brown Snake, D. superciliosa, Fischer; (2) the small-scaled Brown Snake, D. microlepidota, McCoy; and (3) the shield-fronted Brown Snake, D. aspidorhyncha, McCoy. All are venomous, and the commonest is the first, which is usually known as the Brown Snake.

1890. A. H. S. Lucas, `Handbook of the Australasian a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science,' Melbourne, p. 71:

"The most abundant of these are the tiger snake, Hoplocephalus curtus, the most widespread, active, and dangerous of them all: the brown snake, Diemenia superciliosa, pretty generally distributed."

Carpet Snake.

Name applied in Australia to Python variegata, Gray, a non-venomous snake reaching a length of ten feet. The name has reference to the carpet-like pattern on the scales.