Austral English Part 227

Sceloglaux, n. the scientific name of the genus containing the New Zealand bird called the Laughing Owl (see under Jacka.s.s). The name was given by Kaup in 1848; the bird had been previously cla.s.sed as Athene by Gray in 1844. It is now nearly extinct. Kaup also gave the name of Spiloglaux to the New Zealand Owl at the same date. The words are from the Greek glaux, an owl, spilos, a spot, and skelos, a leg.

Scent-wood, a Tasmanian evergreen shrub, Alyxia buxifolia, R. Br., N.O. Apocyneae, of the dogbane family.

Schnapper, n. or Snapper, a fish abundant in all Australasian waters, Pagrus unicolor, Cuv. and Val. The latter spelling was the original form of the word (one that snaps). It was gradually changed by the fishermen, perhaps of Dutch origin, to Schnapper, the form now general. The name Snapper is older than the settlement of Australia, but it is not used for the same fish.

`O.E.D.,' s.v. Cavally, quotes:

1657. R. Ligon, `Barbadoes,' p. 12:

"Fish ... of various kinds ... Snappers, grey and red; Cavallos, Carpians, etc."

The young are called c.o.c.k-schnapper (q.v.); at a year old they are called Red-Bream; at two years old, Squire; at three, School-Schnapper; when they cease to "school" and swim solitary they are called Natives and Rock-Natives. Being the standard by which the "catch" is measured, the full-grown Schnappers are also called Count-fish (q.v.). In New Zealand, the Tamure (q.v.) is also called Schnapper, and the name Red-Schnapper is given to Anthias richardsoni, Gunth., or Scorpis hectori, Hutton.

See quotation, 1882.

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

p. 68:

"King-fish, mullet, mackarel, rockcod, whiting, snapper, bream, flatheads, and various other descriptions of fishes, are all found plentifully about."

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

p. 261:

"The kangaroos are numerous and large, and the finest snappers I have ever heard of are caught off this point, weighing sometimes as much as thirty pounds."

[The point referred to is that now called Schnapper Point, at Mornington, in Victoria.]

1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,'

p. 39:

"The genus Pagrus, or as we term it in the vernacular, `schnapper,' a word of Dutch origin ... The schnapper or snapper. The schnapper (Pagrus unicolor, Cuv. and Val.) is the most valuable of Australian fishes, not for its superior excellence ... but for the abundant and regular supply ...

At a still greater age the schnapper seems to cease to school and becomes what is known as the `native' and `rock-native,'

a solitary and sometimes enormously large fish."

1896 `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5:

"The fish, snapper, is so called because it snapped. The spelling with `ch' is a curious after-thought, suggestive of alcohol. The name cannot come from schnapps."

School-Schnapper, n. a fish.

A name given to the Schnapper when three years old.

See Schnapper.

Scorpion, n. another name for the New South Wales fish Pentaroge marmorata, Cuv. and Val.; called also the Fortescue (q.v.), and the Cobbler.

Scotchman, n. a New Zealand name for a smaller kind of the gra.s.s called Spaniard (q.v.).

1895. W. S. Roberts, `Southland in 1856,' p. 39:

"As we neared the hills speargra.s.s of the smaller kind, known as Scotchmen,' abounded, and although not so strong and sharp-pointed as the `Spaniard,' would not have made a comfortable seat."

1896. `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5:

"... national appellations are not satisfactory. It seems uncivil to a whole nation--another injustice to Ireland--to call a bramble a wild Irishman, or a pointed gra.s.s, with the edges very sharp and the point like a bayonet, a Spaniard. One could not but be amused to find the name Scotchman applied to a smaller kind of Spaniard.'

Scribbly-Gum, n. also called White-Gum, Eucalyptus haemastoma, Sm., N.O. Myrtaceae. See Gum.

1883. F. M. Bailey, `Synopsis of Queensland Flora,' p. 174:

"Scribbly or White-Gum. As regards timber this is the most worthless of the Queensland species. A tree, often large, with a white, smooth, deciduous bark, always marked by an insect in a scribbly manner."

Scrub, n. country overgrown with thick bushes.

Henry Kingsley's explanation (1859), that the word means shrubbery, is singularly misleading, the English word conveying an idea of smallness and order compared with the size and confusion of the Australian use. Yet he is etymologically correct, for Scrobb is Old English (Anglo-Saxon) for shrub; but the use had disappeared in England.

1833. C. Sturt, `Southern Australia,' vol. i. c. i. p. 21:

"We encamped about noon in some scrub."

1838. T. L. Mitch.e.l.l,' Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 213:

"A number of gins and children remained on the borders of the scrub, half a mile off."

1844. J A. Moore, `Tasmanian Rhymings' (1860), p. 13:

"Here Nature's gifts, with those of man combined, Hath [sic] from a scrub a Paradise defined."

1848. W. Westgarth, "Australia Felix,' p. 24:

"The colonial term scrub, of frequent and convenient use in the description of Australian scenery, is applicable to dense a.s.semblages of harsh wild shrubbery, tea-tree, and other of the smaller and crowded timber of the country, and somewhat a.n.a.logous to the term jungle."

1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' vol. ii. p. 155 [Footnote]:

"Scrub. I have used, and shall use, this word so often that some explanation is due to the English reader. I can give no better definition of it than by saying that it means `shrubbery.'"

1864. J. McDouall Stuart, `Exploration in Australia,' p. 153:

"At four miles arrived on the top, through a very thick scrub of mulga."

1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. v. p. 78:

"Woods which are open and pa.s.sable--pa.s.sable at any rate for men on horseback--are called bush. When the undergrowth becomes, thick and matted, so as to be impregnable without an axe, it is scrub."

[Impregnability is not a necessary point of the definition.

There is "light" scrub, and "heavy" or "thick" scrub.]

1883. G. W. Rusden, `History of Australia,' vol. i. p. 67 [Note]:

"Scrub was a colonial term for dense undergrowth, like that of the mallee-scrub."

1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 7:

"Where ... a belt of scrub lies green, glossy, and impenetrable as Indian bungle."