"A confused whirl of dark forms swept before him, and the camp, so full of life a minute ago, is desolate. It was `a rush,' a stampede."
<hw>Rush-broom</hw>, <i>n</i>. Australian name for the indigenous shrub <i>Viminaria denudata</i>, Sm., <i>N.O. Leguminosae</i>. The flowers are orange-yellow. In England, it is cultivated in greenhouses.
<hw>Rusty Fig</hw>, <i>n</i>. See under <i>Fig-tree</i>.
S
<hw>Saddle, Colonial</hw>, <i>n</i>.
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 53:
"The colonial saddle is a shapeless, cumbersome fabric, made of rough leather, with a high pommel and cantle, and huge knee-pads, weighing on an average twenty pounds. The greatest care is necessary to prevent such a diabolical machine from giving a horse a sore back."
[Mr. Finch-Hatton's epithet is exaggerated. The saddle is well adapted to its peculiar local purposes. The projecting knee-pads, especially, save the rider from fractured knee-caps when galloping among closely timbered scrub. The ordinary English saddle is similarly varied by exaggeration of different parts to suit special requirements, as e.g. in the military saddle, with its enormous pommel; the diminutive racing saddle, to meet handicappers' "bottom-weights," etc. The mediaeval saddle had its turret-like cantle for the armoured spearman.]
<hw>Saddle-Back</hw>, <i>n</i>. a bird of the North Island of New Zealand, <i>Creadion carunculatus</i>, Cab. See also <i>Jack-bird</i> and <i>Creadion</i>.
1868. `Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,' Essay on Ornithology, by W. Buller, vol. i. p. 5: