<hw>Menindie Clover</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Clover</i>.
<hw>Menura</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name of the genus of the <i>Lyre-bird</i> (q.v.), so called from the crescent-shaped form of the spots on the tail; the tail itself is shaped like a lyre. (Grk. <i>maen</i>, moon, crescent, and <i>'oura</i>, tail.) The name was given by General Davies in 1800.
1800. T. Davies, `Description of Menura superba,' in `Transactions of the Linnaean Society' (1802), vol. vi. p. 208:
"The general colour of the under sides of these two [tail] feathers is of a pearly hue, elegantly marked on the inner web with bright rufous-coloured crescent-shaped spots, which, from the extraordinary construction of the parts, appear wonderfully transparent."
<hw>Mere</hw>, or <hw>Meri</hw>, <i>n</i>. (pronounced <i>merry</i>), a Maori war-club; a <i>casse-te^te</i>, or a war-axe, from a foot to eighteen inches in length, and made of any suitable hard material—stone, hard wood, whalebone. To many people out of New Zealand the word is only known as the name of a little trinket of <i>greenstone</i> (q.v.) made in imitation of the New Zealand weapon in miniature, mounted in gold or silver, and used as a brooch, locket, ear-ring, or other article of jewelry.
1830. J. D. Lang, `Poems' (edition 1873), p. 116:
"Beneath his shaggy flaxen mat
The dreadful marree hangs concealed."
1851. Mrs. Wilson, `New Zealand,' p. 48:
"The old man has broken my head with his meri."
1859. A. S. Thomson, `Story of New Zealand,' p. 140: