"Why is the first call of a dingo always apparently miles away, and the answer to it—another quavering note slightly more shrill—so close at hand? Is it delusion or distance?"
<hw>Dinornis</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name given by Professor Owen to the genus of huge struthious birds of the post-Pliocene period, in New Zealand, which survive in the traditions of the Maoris under the name of <i>Moa</i> (q.v.). From the Greek <i>deinos</i>, terrible, and <i>'ornis</i>, bird.
1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. Intro. p. xviii:
"The specimens [fossil-bones] transmitted . . . were confided to the learned Professor [Owen] for determination; and these materials, scanty as they were, enabled him to define the generic characters of <i>Dinornis</i>, as afforded by the bones of the hind extremity."
Ibid. p. xxiv:
"Professor Owen had well-nigh exhausted the vocabulary of terms expressive of largeness by naming his successive discoveries <i>ingens, giganteus, crassus, robustus</i>, and <i>elephantopus</i>, when he had to employ the superlative <i>Dinornis maximus</i> to distinguish a species far exceeding in stature even the stately <i>Dinornis giganteus</i>. In this colossal bird . . . some of the cervical vertebrae almost equal in size the neck-bones of a horse! The skeleton in the British Museum . . . measures 11 feet in height, and . . . some of these feathered giants attained to a still greater stature."
<hw>Dipper</hw>, <i>n</i>. a vessel with a handle at the top of the side like a big tin mug. That with which one dips. The word is not Australian, but is of long standing in the United States, where it is used as a name for the constellation of the <i>Great Bear</i>.
1893. `Australasian Schoolmaster,' Feb.:
"These answers have not the true colonial ring of the following, which purports to be the remark of the woman of Samaria: `Sir, the well is very deep, and you haven't got a dipper.'"
<hw>Dips</hw>, <i>n</i>. Explained in quotation.