re still found in considerable numbers.
It is a thievish bird, greedy after everything that glistens;
it frequently carries off spoons, forks, and the like, but it
also breaks into hen-coops, and picks and sucks the eggs."

1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 286:

"Fortunately, the weka bears so obnoxious a character as an
evil-doer that any qualm of conscience on the score of cruelty
is at once stilled when one of these feathered professors of
<i>diablerie</i> is laid to rest."

1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii. p. 105:

[A full description.]

1889. Vincent Pyke, `Wild Will Enderby,' p. 82:

"We-ki! we-ki! we-ka! Three times the plaintive cry of
the `wood-hen' was heard. It was a preconcerted signal."

<hw>Weka, Rail</hw>, <i>n</i>. See <i>Weka</i>.

<hw>Well-in</hw>, <i>adj</i>. answering to `well off,' `well to
do,' `wealthy'; and ordinarily used, in Australia, instead of
these expressions.

1891. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Sydney-side Saxon,' p. 1:

"He's a well-in squatter that took up runs or bought them
cheap before free-selection, and land-boards, and rabbits, and
all the other bothers that turn a chap's hair grey before his
time."

<hw>Western Australia</hw>, the part of the Continent first
sighted in 1527 by a Portuguese, and the last to receive
responsible government, in 1890. It had been made a Crown
colony in 1829.

<hw>Westralia</hw>, <i>n</i>. a common abbreviation for
<i>Western Australia</i> (q.v.). The word was coined to meet
the necessities of the submarine cable regulations, which
confine messages to words containing not more than ten letters.

1896. `The Studio,' Oct., p. 151:

"The latest example is the El Dorado of Western Australia,
or as she is beginning to be more generally called `Westralia,'
a name originally invented by the necessity of the electric
cable, which limits words to ten letters, or else charges
double rate."

1896. `Nineteenth Century,' Nov., p. 711 [Title of article]:

"The Westralian Mining Boom."

<hw>Weta</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand insect--
a huge, ugly grasshopper, <i>Deinacrula megacephala</i>,
called by bushmen the <i>Sawyer</i>.

1857. C. Hursthouse, `New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 123:

"The weta, a suspicious-looking, scorpion-like creature,
apparently replete with `high concocted venom,' but perfectly
harmless."

1863. S. Butler, `First Year in Canterbury Settlement,'
p. 141:

"One of the uglies