<hw>Bell-Frog, Golden</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Golden Bell-Frog</i>.
<hw>Bell-topper</hw>, <i>n</i>. The ordinary Australian name for the tall silk-hat.
1860. W. Kelly, `Life in Victoria,' p. 268 [Footnote]:
"Bell-topper was the derisive name given by diggers to old style hat, supposed to indicate the dandy swell."
<hw>Benjamin</hw>, <i>n</i>. a husband, in Australian pigeon-English.
1870. Chas. H. Allen, `A Visit to Queensland and her Goldfields,' p. 182:
"There are certain native terms that are used by the whites also as a kind of colonial slang, such as `yabber,' to talk; `budgeree,' good; `bale,' no; `yan,' to go; `cabon,' much; and so on.
"With the black people a husband is now called a `benjamin,' probably because they have no word to their own language to express this relationship."
<hw>Benjamin-Tree</hw>, <i>n</i>. also called <i>Weeping Fig</i> in Queensland, Ficus benjaminea, Linn., <i>N.O. Urticaceae</i>.
<hw>Bent-grass</hw>. <i>n</i>. See <i>Grass</i>.
1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 65:
<i>"Agrostis virginica</i>. Virginian Agrostis, or Bent-grass. … Many species of this genus go under the general name of Bent-grass. Their roots spread along among light and sandy soil in which they generally grow with joints like the Squitch or Couch grass of England."
<hw>Berigora</hw>, <i>n</i>. aboriginal name for a bird of genus <i>Falco</i>, from <i>beri</i>, claw, and <i>gora</i>, long. See <i>Hawk</i>
1827. Vigors and Horsfield, `Transactions of Linnaean Society,' vol. xv. p. 185:
"The native name of this bird which we have adopted as its specific name, is <i>Berigora</i>. It is called by the settlers <i>Orange-speckled Hawk</i>."
1848. J. Gould, `Birds of Australia,' I. i. pl. 11:
"<i>Hieracidea berigora</i>. Brown Hawk. Berigora, Aborigines of New South Wales. Orange-speckled Hawk of the Colonists."
<hw>Berley</hw>, <i>n</i>. term used by Australian fishermen for ground bait. It is probably of aboriginal origin.
1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish and Fisheries of New South Wales,' p. 75:
"With hook and line along the rocks of our sea-coast these fishes are caught, but the bait should be crabs. It is usual to wrench legs and shell off the back, and cast them out for Berley."
1896. `Badminton Magazine,' August, p. 201:
"I would signal to the sharks by opening and washing out a few of the largest fish at the boat's head, sometimes adding bait chopped small to serve for what Australian fishermen call Berley."
<hw>Betcherrygah</hw>, <i>n</i>. bird-name, <i>Melopsittacus undulatus</i>, Shaw. See Budgerigar.
<hw>Bettongia</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus of Prehensile-tailed <i>Kangaroo-Rats</i>, whose aboriginal name is <i>Bettong</i>. They are the only ground-dwelling marsupials with prehensile tails, which they use for carrying bunches of grasses and sticks. See <i>Kangaroo-Rat</i>.
<hw>Biddy-biddy</hw>, or <hw>Biddybid</hw>, <i>n</i>. a corruption of Maori name <i>piripiri</i>. It is a kind of bur.
1880. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open, `New Zealand Country Journal,' vol. xii. p. 95:
"Piri-piri (<i>acaena sanguisorbe</i>) by settlers has been converted or corrupted into biddy-biddy; a verb has been formed on it, which is in very constant use for a good part of the year at least. To biddy, is to rid one of burrs, as `I'll just biddy my clothes before I come in.' Small birds are occasionally found in a wretched state of discomfort in which they appear a moving mass of burrs. Parroquets, pipets, and the little white-eyes, have been found victims suffering from these tenacious burrs of the piri-piri, just moving little brown balls unable to fly till picked up and released from their bonds."
1896. `Otago Witness,' Jan. 23, vol. ii. p. 36:
"Yes, biddybids detract very materially from the value of the wool, and the plant should not be allowed to seed where sheep are depastured. They are not quite so bad as the Bathurst burr, but they are certainly in the same category."
<hw>Biddy</hw>, <i>v</i>. See <i>Biddy-biddy, n</i>.
<hw>Bidgee Widgee</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a Tasmanian <i>Bur</i> (q.v.).
<hw>Bidyan Ruffe</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fresh-water fish of New South Wales, <i>Therapon richardsonii</i>, Castln., family <i>Percidae</i>. Mr. J. Douglas Ogilby, Assistant Zoologist at the Australian Museum, Sydney, says in a letter "The Bidyan Ruffe of Sir Thomas Mitchell is our <i>Therapon ellipticus</i>, Richards (<i>T. richardsonii</i>, Castln.). Found in all the rivers of the Murray system, and called <i>Kooberry</i> by the natives." It is also called the <i>Silver Perch</i> and sometimes <i>Bream</i>.
1838. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions,' vol. i. p. 95 [Note]:
"Bidyan is the aboriginal name."
Ibid. vol. i. p. 135:
"Abundance of that which the men commonly called bream (<i>Cernua bidyana</i>), a very coarse but firm fish, which makes a groaning noise when taken out of the water."
<hw>Big-head</hw>, <i>n</i>. a fish. The name is used locally for various fishes; in Australia it is <i>Eleotris nudiceps</i>, Castln., family <i>Gobiidae</i>, a river fish. Of the genus <i>Eleotris</i>, Guenther says that as regards form they repeat almost all the modifications observed among the Gobies, from which they differ only in having the ventral fins non-coalescent. See <i>Bull-head</i> (2).
<hw>Billabong</hw>, <i>n</i>. an effluent from a river, returning to it, or often ending in the sand, in some cases running only in flood time.
In the Wiradhuri dialect of the centre of New South Wales, East coast, <i>billa</i> means a river and <i>bung</i> dead. See <i>Bung. Billa</i> is also a river in some Queensland dialects, and thus forms part of the name of the river Belyando. In the Moreton Bay dialect it occurs in the form <i>pill</i> , and in the sense of `tidal creek.' In the `Western Australian Almanack' for 1842, quoted in J. Fraser's `Australian Language,' 1892, Appendix, p. 50, <i>Bilo</i> is given for <i>River</i>.
<i> Billabong</i> is often regarded as a synonym for <i>Anabranch</i> (q.v.); but there is a distinction. From the original idea, the <i>Anabranch</i> implies rejoining the river; whilst the <i>Billabong</i> implies continued separation from it; though what are called <i>Billabongs</i> often do rejoin.
1862. W. Landsborough, `Exploration of Australia,' p. 30:
"A dried-up tributary of the Gregory, which I named the
Macadam."
[Footnote]: "In the south, such a creek as the Macadam is termed a <i>billy-bonn</i> [sic], from the circumstance of the water carrier returning from it with his pitcher (<i>billy</i>) empty (<i>bong</i>, literally dead)."
1865. W. Howitt, `Discovery in Australia, vol. i. p. 298:
"What the Major calls, after the learned nomenclature of Colonel Jackson, in the `Journal of the Geographical Society,' anabranches, but which the natives call billibongs, channels coming out of a stream and returning into it again."
1880.