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 - Edward Ellis Morris

"A little monkey-bear came cautiously down from the only gum-tree that grew on the premises, grunting and whimpering."

<hw>Monkey-shaft</hw>, n. "A shaft rising from a lower to a higher level (as a rule perpendicularly), and differing from a blind-shaft only in that the latter is sunk from a higher to a lower level." (Brough Smyth's `Glossary.')

1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 69:

"They began to think they might be already too deep for it, and a small `monkey'-shaft was therefore driven upwards from the end of the tunnel."

<hw>Monkeys</hw>, n. bush slang for sheep.

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 88:

"No one felt better pleased than he did to see the last lot of `monkeys,' as the shearers usually denominated sheep, leave the head-station."

<hw>Monotreme</hw>, n. the scientific name of an order of Australian mammals (Monotremata). "The Monotremes derive their name from the circumstance that there is, as in birds and reptiles, but a single aperture at the hinder extremity of the body from which are discharged the whole of the waste-products, together with the reproductive elements; the oviducts opening separately into the end of this passage, which is termed the cloaca. [Grk. monos, sole, and traema, a passage or hole.] Reproduction is effected by means of eggs, which are laid and hatched by the female parent; after [being hatched] the young are nourished by milk secreted by special glands situated within a temporary pouch, into which the head of the young animal is inserted and retained. . . . It was not until 1884 that it was conclusively proved that the Monotremes did actually lay eggs similar in structure to those of birds and reptiles." (R. Lydekker, `Marsupialia and Monotremata,' 1894, p. 227.)

The Monotremes are strictly confined to Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. They are the Platypus (q.v.), and the Echidna (q.v.), or Ant-eating Porcupine.

<hw>Mooley-Apple</hw>, n. i.q. Emu-Apple (q.v.)