Austral English Part 53

"It may possibly have been a term of reproach applied to the industrious farmer, who settled or perched on the resumed portions of a squatter's run, so much to the latter's rage and disgust that he contemptuously likened the farmer to the white-coated, yellow-crested screamer that settles or perches on the trees at the edge of his namesake's clearing."

1889. `Cornhill Magazine,' Jan., p. 33:

"`With a c.o.c.katoo' [t.i.tle]. c.o.c.katoo is the name given to the small, bush farmer in New Zealand."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. xliii. p. 377:

"The governor is a bigoted agriculturist; he has contracted the c.o.c.katoo complaint, I'm afraid."

1893, `The Argus,' June 17, p. 13, col. 4:

"Hire yourself out to a dairyman, take a contract with a rail-splitter, sign articles with a c.o.c.katoo selector; but don't touch land without knowing something about it."

c.o.c.katoo, v. intr. (1) To be a farmer.

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. xx. p. 245:

"Fancy three hundred acres in Oxfords.h.i.+re, with a score or two of bullocks,and twice as many black-faced Down sheep. Regular c.o.c.katooing."

(2) A special sense--to sit on a fence as the bird sits.

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' c. xviii. p. 224:

"The correct thing, on first arriving at a drafting-yard, is to `c.o.c.katoo,' or sit on the rails high above the tossing horn-billows."

c.o.c.katooer, n. a variant of c.o.c.katoo (q.v.), quite fallen into disuse, if quotation be not a nonce use.

1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 137:

"A few wretched-looking huts and hovels, the dwellings of `c.o.c.katooers,' who are not, as it might seem, a species of bird, but human beings; who rent portions of this forest ... on exorbitant terms ... and vainly endeavour to exist on what they can earn besides, their frequent compulsory abstinence from meat, when they cannot afford to buy it, even in their land of cheap and abundant food, giving them some affinity to the grain-eating white c.o.c.katoos."

c.o.c.katoo Fence, n. fence erected by small farmers.

1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xxii. p. 155:

"There would be roads and c.o.c.katoo fences ... in short, all the hostile emblems of agricultural settlement."

1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' c. xiv. p. 120:

"The fields were divided by open rails or c.o.c.katoo fences, i.e.

branches and logs of trees laid on the ground one across the other with posts and slip-rails in lieu of gates."

c.o.c.katoo Bush, n. i.q. Native Currant (q.v).

c.o.c.katoo Orchis, n. a Tasmanian name for the Orchid, Caleya major, R. Br.

c.o.c.k-eyed Bob, a local slang term in Western Australia for a thunderstorm.

1894. `The Age,' Jan. 20, p. 13, col. 4:

"They [the natives of the northwest of Western Australia] are extremely frightened of them [sc. storms called w.i.l.l.y w.i.l.l.y, q.v.], and in some places even on the approach of an ordinary thunderstorm or `c.o.c.k-eyed Bob,' they clear off to the highest ground about."

c.o.c.kle, n. In England the name is given to a species of the familiar marine bivalve mollusc, Cardium.

The commonest Australian species is Cardium tenuicostatum, Lamarck, present in all extra-tropical Australia. The name is also commonly applied to members of the genus Chione.

c.o.c.k-Schnapper, n. a fish; the smallest kind of Schnapper (q.v.). See also Count-fish.

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

p. 41:

"The usual method of estimating quant.i.ty for sale by the fisherman is, by the schnapper or count-fish, the school-fish, and squire, among which from its metallic appearance is the copper head or copper colour, and the red bream. Juveniles rank the smallest of the fry, not over an inch or two in length, as the c.o.c.k-schnapper. The fact, however, is now generally admitted that all these are one and the same genus, merely in different stages of growth."

Cod, n. This common English name of the Gadus morrhua is applied to many fishes in Australia of various families, Gadoid and otherwise. In Melbourne it is given to Lotella callarias, Guenth., and in New South Wales to several fishes of the genus Serra.n.u.s.

Lotella is a genus of the family Gadidae, to which the European Cod belongs; Serra.n.u.s is a Sea perch (q.v.). See Rock Cod, Black Rock Cod, Red Rock Cod, Black Cod, Elite Cod, Red Cod, Murray Cod, Cloudy Bay Cod, Ling, Groper, Hapuku, and Haddock.

Coffee-Bush, n. a settlers' name for the New Zealand tree the Karamu (q.v.). Sometimes called also Coffee-plant.

Coffer-fish, n. i.q. Trunk-fish (q.v.).

Coffee Plant, or Coffee Berry, n. name given in Tasmania to the Tasmanian Native Holly (q.v.).

Colonial Experience, n. and used as adj. same as cadet (q.v.) in New Zealand; a young man learning squatting business, gaining his colonial experience. Called also jackaroo (q.v.).

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 95:

"You're the first `colonial experience' young fellow that it ever occurred to within my knowledge."

Colonial Goose, n. a boned leg of mutton stuffed with sage and onions. In the early days the sheep was almost the sole animal food. Mutton was then cooked and served in various ways to imitate other dishes.

Colour, n. sc. of gold. It is sometimes used with `good,' to mean plenty of gold: more usually, the `colour'

means just a little gold, enough to show in the dish.

1860. Kelly, `Life in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 222:

"... they had not, to use a current phrase, `raised the colour.'"

1890. Rolf Boldrewood. `Miner's Right,' c. xiv. p. 149:

"This is the fifth claim he has been in since he came here, and the first in which he has seen the colour."

1891. W. Lilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 14:

"After spending a little time there, and not finding more than a few colours of gold, he started for Mount Heemskirk."

Convictism, n. the system of transportation of convicts to Australia and Van Diemen's Land, now many years abolished.

1852. J. West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 309: