-
<i>S. citreogularis</i>, Gould.

<hw>Scrubber</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) a bullock that has taken
to the scrub and so become wild. See <i>Scrub-cattle</i>.
Also formerly used for a wild horse, now called a <i>Brumby</i>
(q.v.).

1859. H. Kingsley, `Geoffrey Hamlyn,' c. xxix:

"The captain was getting in the scrubbers, cattle which had
been left to run wild through in the mountains."

1874. W. H. L. Ranken, `Dominion of Australia,' c. vi. p. 110:

"There are few field-sports anywhere . . . equal to `hunting
scrubbers.'"

1881. A. C. Grant, `Bush Life in Queensland,' vol. i. p. 93:

"Out flew the ancient scrubber, instinctively making towards
his own wild domain."

1887. W. S. S. Tyrwhitt, `The New Chum in the Queensland
Bush,' p. 151:

"There are also wild cattle, which are either cattle run wild
or descendants of such. They are commonly called `scrubbers,'
because they live in the larger scrubs."

1888. Rolf Boldrewood, `Robbery under Arms,' p. 405:

"Here I am boxed up, like a scrubber in a pound, year after
year."

1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4, col. 4 (`Getting in the
Scrubbers'):

"The scrubbers, unseen of men, would stay in their fastnesses
all day chewing the cud they had laid up the night before, and
when the sun went down and the strident laugh of the giant
kingfisher had given place to the insidious air-piercing note
of the large-mouthed podargus, the scrub would give up its
inhabitants."

(2) A starved-looking or ill-bred animal.

(3) The word is sometimes applied to mankind in the slang sense
of an "outsider." It is used in University circles as
equivalent to the Oxford "smug," a man who will not join in the
life of the place. See also <i>Bush-scrubber</i>.

1868. `Colonial Monthly,' vol. ii. p. 141 [art. `Peggy's
Christening]:

"`I can answer for it, that they are scrubbers--to use a bush
phrase--have never been brought within the pale of any church.'

"`Never been christened?' asked the priest.

"`Have no notion of it--scrubbers, sir--never been branded.'"

<hw>Scrubby</hw>, <i>adj</i>. belonging to, or resembling
scrub.

1802. Jas. Flemming, `Journal of the Exploration of C.
Grimes' [at Port Phillip, Australia], ed. by J. J.
Shillinglaw, 1879, Melbourne, p. 17:

"The land appeared barren, a scrubby brush."

[p. 221: "The trees low and scrubby."

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 19:

"To-day I . . . passed a scrubby ironbark forest.".

1849.