1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' p. 147:
"Shearers were very scarce, and the poor sheep got fearfully `tomahawked' by the new hands."
1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 96:
"Some men never get the better of this habit, but `tomahawk' as badly after years of practice as when they first began."
1896. A. B. Paterson, `Man from Snowy River,' p. 162:
"The Shearers sat in the firelight, hearty and hale and strong,
After the hard day's shearing, passing the joke along
The `ringer' that shore a hundred, as they never were shorn
before,
And the novice who toiling bravely had tommyhawked half
a score."
<hw>Tommy-axe</hw>, <i>n</i>. a popular corruption of the word <i>Tomahawk</i> (q.v.); it is an instance of the law of Hobson-Jobson.
<hw>Tom Russell's Mahogany</hw>. See <i>Mahogany</i>.
<hw>Tomtit</hw>, <i>n</i>. name applied in New Zealand to two New Zealand birds of the genus <i>Myiomoira</i>, the species being <i>M. toitoi</i>, Garnot, in North Island; <i>M. macrocephala</i>, Gmel., in South Island.
1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 39: