Austral English. Edward Ellis Morris
dust raised from the Sahara and carried northward by the sirocco often falls over the countries north of the Mediterranean as `blood rain,' or as `red snow,' the moisture and the sand falling together. … The temperature never rises above 95 degrees."
1889. `The Century Dictionary,' s.v. Sirocco:
"(2) A hot, dry, dust-laden wind blowing from the highlands of Africa to the coasts of Malta, Sicily and Naples. … During its prevalence the sky is covered with a dense haze."
(3) The illustrative quotations on <i>brickfielder</i>, up to this point, have been in chronological consecutive order. The final three quotations below show that while the original true definition and meaning, (1), are still not quite lost, yet authoritative writers find it necessary to combat the modern popular inversion, (2).
1863. Frank Fowler, `The Athenaeum,' Feb. 21, p. 264, col. 1:
"The `brickfielder' is not the hot wind at all; it is but another name for the cold wind, or southerly buster, which follows the hot breeze, and which, blowing over an extensive sweep of sandhills called the Brickfields, semi-circling Sydney, carries a thick cloud of dust (or `brickfielder') across the city."
[The writer is accusing Dr. Jobson (see quotation 1862, above) of plagiarism from his book `Southern Lights and Shadows.']
1890. Lyth, `Golden South,' vol. ii. p. 11:
"A dust which covered and penetrated everything and everywhere.
This is generally known as a `brickfielder.'"
1896. `Three Essays on Australian Weather,' `On Southerly Buster,' by H. A. Hunt, p. 17:
"In the early days of Australian settlement, when the shores of Port Jackson were occupied by a sparse population, and the region beyond was unknown wilderness and desolation, a great part of the Haymarket was occupied by the brickfields from which Brickfield Hill takes its name. When a `Southerly Burster' struck the infant city, its approach was always heralded by a cloud of reddish dust from this locality, and in consequence the phenomenon gained the local name of `brickfielder.' The brickfields have long since vanished, and with them the name to which they gave rise, but the wind continues to raise clouds of dust as of old under its modern name of `Southerly Burster."
<hw>Bricklow</hw>, <i>n</i>. obsolete form of <i>Brigalow</i> (q.v.).
<hw>Brigalow</hw>, <i>n</i>. and <i>adj</i>. Spellings various. Native name, <i>Buriargalah</i>. In the Namoi dialect in New South Wales, <i>Bri</i> or <i>Buri</i> is the name for <i>Acacia pendula</i>, Cunn.; <i>Buriagal</i>, relating to the <i>buri; Buriagalah</i> == place of the <i>buri</i> tree. Any one of several species of <i>Acacia</i>, especially <i>A. harpophylla</i>, F. v. M., <i>H.O. Leguminosae</i>. J. H. Maiden (`Useful Native Plants,' p. 356, 1889) gives its uses thus:
"Wood brown, hard, heavy, and elastic; used by the natives for spears, boomerangs, and clubs. The wood splits freely, and is used for fancy turnery. Saplings used as stakes in vineyards have lasted twenty years or more. It is used for building purposes, and has a strong odour of violets.'
1846. L. Leichhardt, quoted by J. D. Lang, `Cooksland,' p. 312:
"Almost impassable bricklow scrub, so called from the bricklow (a species of acacia)."
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 4:
"The Bricklow Acacia, which seems to be identical with the Rosewood Acacia of Moreton Bay; the latter, however, is a fine tree, 50 to 60 feet high, whereas the former is either a small tree or a shrub. I could not satisfactorily ascertain the origin of the word Bricklow, but as it is well understood and generally adopted by all the squatters between the Severn River and the Boyne, I shall make use of the name. Its long, slightly falcate leaves, being of a silvery green colour, give a peculiar character to the forest, where the tree abounds."—[Footnote]: "<i>Brigaloe</i> Gould."
1862. H. C. Kendall, `Poems,' p. 79:
"Good-bye to the Barwan and brigalow scrubs."
1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 190:
"Now they pass through a small patch of Brigalow scrub. Some one has split a piece from a trunk of a small tree. What a scent the dark-grained wood has!"
1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia;' vol. iv. p. 69:
"There exudes from the Brigalow a white gum, in outward appearance like gum-arabic, and even clearer, but as a `sticker' valueless, and as a `chew-gum' disappointing."
1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 23:
"The glare of a hard and pitiless sky overhead, the infinite vista of saltbush, brigalow, stay-a-while, and mulga, the creeks only stretches of stone, and no shelter from the shadeless gums."
<hw>Brill</hw>, <i>n</i>. a small and very bony rhomboidal fish of New Zealand, <i>Pseudorhombus scaphus</i>, family <i>Pleuronectidae</i>. The true <i>Brill</i> of Europe is <i>Rhombus levis</i>.
<hw>Brisbane Daisy</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Daisy, Brisbane</i>.
<hw>Bristle-bird</hw>, <i>n</i>. a name given to certain Australian Reed-warblers. They are—<i>Sphenura brachyptera</i>, Latham; Long-tailed B.—<i>S. longirostris</i>, Gould; Rufous-headed B.—<i>S. broadbentii</i>, McCoy. See <i>Sphenura</i>.
1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' vol. xv. p. 232:
"He (Mr. Caley) calls it in his notes `Bristle Bird.'"
<hw>Broad-leaf</hw>, <i>n</i>. a settlers' name for <i>Griselinia littoralis</i>, Raoul; Maori name, <i>Paukatea</i>.
1879. W. N. Blair, `Building Materials of Otago,' p. 155:
"There are few trees in the [Otago] bush so conspicuous or so well known as the broad-leaf. … It grows to a height of fifty or sixty feet, and a diameter of from three to six; the bark is coarse and fibrous, and the leaves a beautiful deep green of great brilliancy."
1879. J. B. Armstrong, `Transactions of New Zealand Institute,' vol. xii. Art. 49, p. 328:
"The broadleaf (<i>Griselinia littoralis</i>) is abundant in the district [of Banks' Peninsula], and produces a hard red wood of a durable nature."
1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 103:
"The rough trunks and limbs of the broadleaf."
<hw>Broker</hw>, <i>n</i>. Australian slang for a man completely ruined, stonebroke.
1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 21, p. 1014:
"We're nearly `dead brokers,' as they say out here. Let's harness up Eclipse and go over to old Yamnibar."
<hw>Bronze-wing</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird with a lustrous shoulder, <i>Phaps chalcoptera</i>, Lath. Called also <i>Bronze-wing Pigeon</i>.
1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 145:
"One of the gold-winged pigeons, of which a plate is annexed. [Under plate, Golden-winged Pigeon.] This bird is a curious and singular species remarkable for having most of the feathers of the wing marked with a brilliant spot of golden yellow, changing, in various reflections of light, to green and copper-bronze, and when the wing is closed, forming two bars of the same across it."
1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' vol. ii. p. 31:
"The pigeons are by far the most beautiful birds in the island; they are called bronze-winged pigeons."
1857. W. Howitt, `Tallangetta,' vol. ii. p. 57:
"Mr. Fitzpatrick followed his kangaroo hounds, and shot his emus, his wild turkeys, and his bronze-wings."