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Jabiru, n. The word comes from Brazil, and was first given there to the large stork Mycteria (Xenorhynchus) Americana. The Australian species is M. australis, Latham. It has the back and neck dark grey, changing on the neck to scarlet. There is a black-necked stork in Australia (Xenorhynchus asiaticus), which is also called the Jabiru.
1847. L. Leichhardt, 'Overland Expedition,' p. 194:
'We saw a Tabiroo [sic] (Mycteria).'
1860. G. Bennett, 'Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 195:
'In October, 1858, I succeeded in purchasing a fine living specimen of the New Holland Jabiru, or Gigantic Crane of the colonists (Mycteria Australis)'
1890. C. Lumholtz, 'Among Cannibals,' p. 323:
'The splendid Australian jabiru (Mycteria Australis), and I had the good fortune to shoot on the wing a specimen of this beautiful variety of the stork family.'
Jacana, n. a Brazilian word for a bird of the genus Parra (q.v.). The Australian species is the Comb-crested Jacana, Parra gallinacea, Temminck. It is also called the Lotus-bird (q.v.).
Jack in a Box . i.q. Hair-trigger (q.v.).
1854. 'The Home Companion,' p. 554:
'When previously mentioning the elegant Stylidium graminifolium (grass-leaved Jack-in-a-box), which may be easily known by its numerous grassy-like radical leaves, and pretty pink flowers, on a long naked stem, we omitted to mention a peculiarity in it, which is said to afford much amusement to the aborigines, who are, generally speaking, fond of, and have a name for, many of the plants common in their own territories. The stigma lies at the apex of a long column, surrounded and concealed by the anthers. This column is exceedingly irritable, and hangs down on one side of the flower, until it is touched, when it suddenly springs up and shifts to the opposite side of the blossom or calyx.'
1859. D. Bunce, 'Australasiatic Reminiscences,' p. 26:
'Stylidium (native Jack in a box). This genus is remarkable for the singular elasticity of the column stylis, which support the anthers, and which being irritable, will spring up if pricked with a pin, or other little substance, below the joint, before the pollen, a small powder, is shed, throwing itself suddenly over, like a reflex arm, to the opposite side of the flower. Hence the colonial designation of Jack in a box.'
Jack Shay, or Jackshea, n. a tin quart-pot.
1881. A. C. Grant, 'Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 209:
'Hobbles and Jack Shays hang from the saddle dees.'
[Footnote]: 'A tin quart-pot, used for boiling water for tea, and contrived so as to hold within it a tin pint-pot.'
1890. 'The Argus,' June14, p. 4, col. 1:
'Some of his clothes, with his saddle, serve for a pillow; his ration bags are beside his head, and his jackshea (quart-pot) stands by the fire.'
Jack the Painter, n. very strong bush-tea, so called from the mark it leaves round the drinker's mouth.
1855. G. C. Mundy, 'Our Antipodes,' p. 163:
'Another notorious ration tea of the bush is called Jack the Painter--a very green tea indeed, its viridity evidently produced by a discreet use of the copper drying-pans in its manufacture.'
1878. 'The Australian,' vol. i. p. 418:
'The billy wins, and 'Jack the Painter' tea Steams on the hob, from aught like fragrance free.'
1880. Garnet Walch, 'Victoria in 1880,' p. 113
'Special huts had to be provided for them [the sundowners], where they enjoyed eleemosynary rations of mutton, damper, and 'Jack the Painter.''
Jack-bird, n. a bird of the South Island of New Zealand, Creadion cinereus, Buller. See also Saddle-back and Creadion.
1888. W. L. Buller, 'Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 23:
'It has become the habit to speak of this bird as the Brown Saddle-back; but this is a misnomer, inasmuch as the absence of the 'saddle' is its distinguishing feature. I have accordingly adopted the name of Jack-bird, by which it is known among the settlers in the South Island. Why it should be so called I cannot say, unless this is an adaptation of the native name Tieke, the same word being the equivalent, in the Maori vernacular, of our Jack.'
Jackaroo, n. a name for a Colonial Experience (q.v.), a young man fresh from England, learning squatting; called in New Zealand a Cadet (q.v.). Compare the American 'tenderfoot.' A verse definition runs:
'To do all sorts and kinds of jobs, Help all the men Jacks, Bills or Bobs, As well as he is able. To be neither boss, overseer, nor man, But a little of all as well as he can, And eat at the master's table.'
The word is generally supposed to be a corruption (in imitation of the word Kangaroo) of the words 'Johnny Raw.' Mr. Meston, in the 'Sydney Bulletin,' April 18, 1896, says it comes from the old Brisbane blacks, who called the pied crow shrike (Strepera graculina) 'tchaceroo,' a gabbling and garrulous bird. They called the German missionaries of 1838 'jackeroo,' a gabbler, because they were always talking. Afterwards they applied it to all white men.
1880. W. Senior, 'Travel and Trout,' p. 19:
'Jackaroos--the name given to young gentlemen newly arrived from home to gather colonial experiences.'
1881. A. C. Grant 'Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 53:
'The young jackaroo woke early next morning.'
[Footnote]: 'The name by which young men who go to the Australian colonies to pick up colonial experience are designated.'
1885. H. Finch-Hatton, 'Advance Australia,' p. 85:
'Of course before starting on their own account to work a station they go into the bush to gain colonial experience, during which process they are known in the colony as 'jackaroos.''
1891. Rolf Boldrewood, 'A Sydneyside Saxon,' p. 74:
'We went most of the way by rail and coach, and then a jackaroo met us with a fine pair of horses in a waggonette. I expected to see a first cousin to a kangaroo, when the coachdriver told us, instead of a young gentleman learning squatting.'
1894. 'Sydney Morning Herald' (date lost):
''Jack-a-roo' is of the same class of slang; but the unlucky fellow--often gentle and soft-handed--who does the oddwork of a sheep or cattle station, if he finds time and heart for letters to any who love him, probably writes his rue with a difference.'
Jackaroo, v. to lead the life of a Jackaroo.
1890. Tasma, 'In her Earliest Youth,' p. 152:
'I've seen such a lot of those new chums, one way and another. They knock down all their money at the first go-off, and then there's nothing for them to do but to go and jackaroo up in Queensland.'
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, 'Squatter's Dream,' c. xix. p. 239:
'A year or two more Jackerooing would only mean the consumption of so many more figs of negro-head, in my case.'
Jackass, Laughing, n. (1) The popular name of an Australian bird, Dacelo gigas, Bodd, the Great Brown Kingfisher of Australia; see Dacelo. To an Australian who has heard the ludicrous note of the bird and seen its comical, half-stupid appearance, the origin of the name seems obvious. It utters a prolonged rollicking laugh, often preceded by an introductory stave resembling the opening passage of a donkey's bray.
But the name has been erroneously derived from the French jacasse, as to which Littre gives 'terme populaire. Femme, fille qui parle beaucoup.' He adds, that the word jacasse appears to come from jacquot, a name popularly given to parrots and magpies, our 'Poll.' The verb jacasser means to chatter, said of a magpie. The quotation from Collins (1798) seems to dispose of this suggested French origin, by proving the early use of the name Laughing Jackass. As a matter of fact, the French name had already in 1776 been assigned to the bird, viz. Grand Martin-pecheur de la Nouvelle Guinee. [See Pierre Sonnerat, 'Voyage a la Nouvelle Guinee' (Paris, 1776), p. 171.] The only possibility of French origin would be from the sailors of La Perouse. But La Perouse arrived in Botany Bay on January 26, 1788, and found Captain Phillip's ships leaving for Sydney Cove. The intercourse between them was very slight. The French formed a most unfavourable idea of the country, and sailed away on March 10. If from their short intercourse, the English had accepted the word Jackass, would not mention of the fact have been made by Governor Phillip, or Surgeon White, who mention the bird but by a different name (see quotations 1789, 1790), or by Captain Watkin Tench, or Judge Advocate Collins, who both mention the incident of the French ships?
The epithet 'laughing' is now often omitted; the bird is generally called only a Jackass, and this is becoming contracted into the simple abbreviation of Jack. A common popular name for it is the Settlers'-Clock. (See quotations--1827, Cunningham; 1846, Haydon; and 1847, Leichhardt.) The aboriginal name of the bird is Kookaburra (q.v.), and by this name it is generally called in Sydney; another spelling is Gogobera.
There is another bird called a Laughing Jackass in New Zealand which is not a Kingfisher, but an Owl, Sceloglaux albifacies, Kaup. (Maori name, Whekau). The New Zealand bird is rare, the Australian bird very common. The so-called Derwent Jackass of Tasmania is a Shrike (Cracticus cinereus, Gould), and is more properly called the Grey Butcher-bird. See Butcher-bird.
1789. Governor Phillip, 'Voyage,' p. 287:
Description given with picture, but under name 'Great Brown Kingsfisher' [sic].
Ibid. p. 156:
Similar bird, with description and picture, under name 'Sacred King's Fisher.'
1790. J. White, 'Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 137:
'We not long after discovered the Great Brown King's Fisher, of which a plate is annexed. This bird has been described by Mr. Latham in his 'General Synopsis of Birds,' vol. ii. p. 603.
Ibid. p. 193:
'We this day shot the Sacred King's-Fisher (see plate annexed).'
1798. Collins, 'Account of English Colony in New South Wales,' p. 615, (Vocabulary):
'Gi-gan-ne-gine. Bird named by us the Laughing Jackass. Go-con-de--inland name for it.'
1827. P. Cunningham, 'Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 232:
'The loud and discordant noise of the laughing jackass (or settler's-clock, as he is called), as he takes up his roost on the withered bough of one of our tallest trees, acquaints us that the sun has just dipped behind the hills.'
1827. Vigors and Horsfield, 'Transactions of Linnaean Society,' vol. xv. p. 204:
'The settlers call this bird the Laughing Jackass. I have also heard it called the Hawkesbury-Clock (clocks being at the period of my residence scarce articles in the colony, there not being one perhaps in the whole Hawkesbury settlement), for it is among the first of the feathered tribes which announce the approach of day.'
1846. G. H. Haydon, 'Five Years in Australia Felix,' p. 71:
'The laughing jackass, or settler's-clock is an uncouth looking creature of an ashen brown colour . . . This bird is the first to indicate by its note the approach of day, and thus it has received its other name, the settler's clock.'
1847. L. Leichhardt, 'Overland Expedition,' p. 234:
'I usually rise when I hear the merry laugh of the laughing- jackass (Dacelo gigantea), which, from its regularity, has not been unaptly named the settlers'-clock.'
1848. J. Gould, 'Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. pl. 18:
'Dacelo Gigantea, Leach, Great Brown King Fisher; Laughing Jackass of the Colonists.'
1855. W. Howitt, 'Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 58:
'You are startled by a loud, sudden cackling, like flocks of geese, followed by an obstreperous hoo! hoo! ha! ha! of the laughing jackass (Dacelo gigantea) a species of jay.'
[Howitt's comparison with the jay is evidently due to the azure iridescent markings on the upper part of the wings, in colour like the blue feathers on the jay.]
1862. F. J. Jobson, 'Australia,' c. vi. p. 145:
'The odd medley of cackling, bray, and chuckle notes from the 'Laughing Jackass.''
1872. C. H. Eden, 'My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 18:
'At daylight came a hideous chorus of fiendish laughter, as if the infernal regions had been broken loose--this was the song of another feathered innocent, the laughing jackass--not half a bad sort of fellow when you come to know him, for he kills snakes, and is an infallible sign of the vicinity of fresh-water.'
1880. T. W. Nutt, 'Palace of Industry,' p. 15:
'Where clock-bird laughed and sweet wildflowers throve.'
[Footnote] 'The familiar laughing jackass.'
1880. Garnet Walch, 'Victoria in 1880,' p. 13:
'Dense forests, where the prolonged cacchinations of that cynic of the woods, as A. P. Martin calls the laughing jackass, seemed to mock us for our pains.'
1881. A. C. Grant, 'Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 37:
'The harsh-voiced, big-headed, laughing jackass.'
1881. D. Blair, 'Cyclopaedia of Australasia,' p. 202:
'The name it vulgarly bears is a corruption of the French word Jacasser, 'to chatter,' and the correct form is the 'Laughing Jacasse.''
[No. See above.]
1885. 'Australasian Printers' Keepsake,' p. 76:
'Magpies chatter, and the jackass Laughs Good-morrow like a Bacchus.'
1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, 'Australian Life,' [telling an old story] p. 155:
'The Archbishop inquired the name of a curious bird which had attracted his attention. 'Your grace, we call that the laughing jackass in this country, but I don't know the botanical [sic] name of the bird.'
1890. C. Lumholtz, 'Among Cannibals, p. 27:
'Few of the birds of Australia have pleased me as much as this curious laughing jackass, though it is both clumsy and unattractive in colour. Far from deserving its name jackass, it is on the contrary very wise and also very courageous. It boldly attacks venomous snakes and large lizards, and is consequently the friend of the colonist.'
1890. Tasma, 'In her Earliest Youth,' p. 265:
''There's a jackass--a real laughing jackass on that dead branch. They have such a queer note; like this,, you know--' and upon her companion's startled ears there rang forth, all of a sudden, the most curious, inimitable, guttural, diabolical tremolo it had ever befallen them to hear.'
1890. 'Victorian Statutes-Game Act, Third Schedule':
'[Close season.] Great Kingfisher or Laughing Jackass. The whole year. all Kingfishers other than the Laughing Jackass. From the 1st day of August to the 20th day of December next following in each year.'
(2) The next quotations refer to the New Zealand bird.
1882. T. H. Potts, 'Out in the Open,' p. 122:
'Athene Albifacies, wekau of the Maoris, is known by some up-country settlers as the big owl or laughing jackass.'
'The cry of the laughing jackass . . . Why it should share with one of our petrels and the great Dacelo of Australia the trivial name of laughing jackass, we know not; if its cry resembles laughter at all, it is the uncontrollable outburst, the convulsive shout of insanity; we have never been able to trace the faintest approach to mirthful sound in the unearthly yells of this once mysterious night-bird.'
1888. W. L. Buller, 'Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 198:
'Sceloglaux albifacies, Kaup., Laughing Owl; Laughing Jackass of the Colonists.'
[The following quotation refers to the Derwent Jackass.]
1880. Mrs. Meredith, 'Tasmanian Friends and Foes,' p. 110:
'You have heard of . . . the laughing jackass. We, too, have a 'jackass,' a smaller bird, and not in any way remarkable, except for its merry gabbling sort of song, which when several pipe up together, always gives one the idea of a party of very talkative people all chattering against time, and all at once.'
Jackass-fish, n. another Sydney name for the Morwong (q.v.).
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