Austral English Part 51
`From its abundance in the neighbourhood of Menindie, it is often called Menindie-clover.' It is the `Australian shamrock'
of Mitch.e.l.l. This perennial, fragrant, clover-like plant is a good pasture herb."
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. a bullock used as a decoy to catch wild cattle. This seems to be from the use of coach as the University term for a private tutor.
1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 110:
"To get them [sc. wild cattle] a party of stockmen take a small herd of quiet cattle, `coaches.'"
. to decoy wild cattle or horses with tame ones.
1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 121:
"Here he [the wild horse] may be got by `coaching' like wild cattle."
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1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,'
vol. xv. p. 330:
"This bird is more often heard than seen. It inhabits bushes.
The loud cracking whip-like noise it makes (from whence the colonists give it the name of coachwhip), may be heard from a great distance."
1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii.
p. 158:
"If you should hear a coachwhip crack behind, you may instinctively start aside to let the mail pa.s.s; but quickly find it is only our native coachman with his spread-out fantail and perked-up crest, whistling and cracking out his whip-like notes as he hops sprucely from branch to branch."
1844. Mrs. Meredith, `Notes and Sketches of New South Wales,'
p. 137:
"Another equally singular voice among our feathered friends was that of the `coachman,' than which no t.i.tle could be more appropriate, his chief note being a long clear whistle, with a smart crack of the whip to finish with."
1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 177:
"The bell-bird, by the river heard; The whip-bird, which surprised I hear, In me have powerful memories stirred Of other scenes and strains more dear; Of sweeter songs than these afford, The thrush and blackbird warbling clear."
--Old Impressions.
1846. G. H. Haydon, `Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 71:
"The coach-whip is a small bird about the size of a sparrow, found near rivers. It derives its name from its note, a slow, clear whistle, concluded by a sharp jerking noise like the crack of a whip."
1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. ii. p. 76:
"The whip-bird, whose sharp wiry notes, even, are far more agreeable than the barking of dogs and the swearing of diggers."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 24:
"That is the coach-whip bird. There again.
Whew-ew-ew-ew-whit. How sharply the last note sounds."
1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' c. vi. p. 54:
"The sharp st--wt of the whip-bird ... echoed through the gorge."
1888. James Thomas, `May o' the South,' `Australian Poets 1788-1888' (ed. Sladen), p. 552:
"Merrily the wagtail now Chatters on the ti-tree bough, While the crested coachman bird `Midst the underwood is heard."
. to loaf about from station to station.
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' xxv. 295:
"I ain't like you, Towney, able to coast about without a job of work from shearin' to shearin'."
(q.v.).
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' viii. 75:
"A voluble, good-for-nothing, loafing impostor, a regular `coaster.'"
. sometimes used as equivalent to a coach. "I am going by Cobb." The word is still used, though no Mr. Cobb has been connected with Australian coaches for many years. See quotation.
1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 184:
"Mr. Cobb was an American, and has returned long ago to his native country. He started a line of conveyances from Melbourne to Castlemaine some time after the gold discoveries.
Mr. Cobb had spirit to buy good horses, to get first-cla.s.s American coaches, to employ good Yankee whips, and in a couple of years or so he had been so extensively patronised that he sold out, and retired with a moderate fortune." [But the Coaching Company retained ... the style of Cobb & Co.]
1879 (about). `Queensland Bush Song':
"Hurrah for the Roma Railway!
Hurrah for Cobb and Co.!
Hurrah, hurrah for a good fat horse To carry me Westward Ho!"
(q.v.)
1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), Dec. 23, p. 6, col. 1:
"Every one might not know what a `cobbler' is. It is the last sheep in a catching pen, and consequently a bad one to shear, as the easy ones are picked first. The cobbler must be taken out before `Sheep-ho' will fill up again. In the harvest field English rustics used to say, when picking up the last sheaf, `This is what the cobbler threw at his wife.' `What?' `The last,' with that l.u.s.ty laugh, which, though it might betray `a vacant mind,' comes from a very healthy organism."
(q.v.) from the shape of its beak.
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' vol. iv. pl. 61:
"Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris, Lath., Slender-billed Spine-bill. Cobbler's Awl, Colonists of Van Diemen's Land. Spine-bill, Colonists of New South Wales."
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