Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia

by Edward Ellis Morris

<hw>Select</hw>, v. i.q. <i>Free-select</i> (q.v.).

<hw>Selection</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Free-selection</i> (q.v.).

<hw>Selector</hw>, <i>n</i>. i.q. <i>Free-selector</i> (q.v.).

<hw>Sergeant Baker</hw>, <i>n</i>. name given to a fish of New South Wales, <i>Aulopus purpurissatus</i>, Richards., family <i>Scopelidae</i>.

1882. Rev. J E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' p. 82:

"The Sergeant Baker in all probability got its local appellation in the early history of the colony (New South Wales), as it was called after a sergeant of that name in one of the first detachments of a regiment; so were also two fruits of the Geebong tribe (<i>Persoonia</i>); one was called Major Buller, and the other Major Groce, and this latter again further corrupted into Major Grocer."

<hw>Settler's</hw> Clock (also <hw>Hawkesbury Clock</hw>), <i>n</i>. another name for the bird called the <i>Laughing-Jackass</i>. See <i>Jackass</i>.

1896. F. G. Aflalo, `Natural History of Australia,' p. 114:

"From its habit of starting its discordant paean somewhere near sunrise and, after keeping comparatively quiet all through the hotter hours, cackling a `requiem to the day's decline,' the bird has been called the <i>Settler's</i> clock. It may be remarked, however, that this by no means takes place with the methodical precision that romancers write of in their letters home."

<hw>Settlers' Matches</hw>, <i>n</i>. name occasionally applied to the long pendulous strips of bark which hang from the Eucalypts and other trees, during decortication, and which, bec oming exceedingly dry, are readily ignited and used as kindling wood.