hose sole work it is to
lay out poison for the dingo. The black variety with white
breast generally appears in Western Queensland along with the
red."

1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne':

"The dingo of northern Australia can be distinguished from his
brother of the south by his somewhat smaller size and
courageous bearing. He always carries his tail curled over his
back, and is ever ready to attack any one or anything; whilst
the southern dingo carries his tail low, slinks along like a
fox, and is easily frightened. The pure dingo, which is now
exceedingly rare in a wild state, partly through the agency of
poison, but still more from the admixture of foreign breeds, is
unable to bark, and can only express its feelings in long-drawn
weird howls."

1894. `The Argus,' June 23, p. l1, col. 4:

"Why is the first call of a dingo always apparently miles away,
and the answer to it--another quavering note slightly more
shrill--so close at hand? Is it delusion or distance?"

<hw>Dinornis</hw>, <i>n</i>. the scientific name given by
Professor Owen to the genus of huge struthious birds of the
post-Pliocene period, in New Zealand, which survive in the
traditions of the Maoris under the name of <i>Moa</i> (q.v.).
From the Greek <i>deinos</i>, terrible, and <i>'ornis</i>,
bird.

1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. i. Intro.
p. xviii:

"The specimens [fossil-bones] transmitted . . . were confided
to the learned Professor [Owen] for determination; and these
materials, scanty as they were, enabled him to define the
generic characters of <i>Dinornis</i>, as afforded by the bones
of the hind extremity."

Ibid. p. xxiv:

"Professor Owen had well-nigh exhausted the vocabulary of terms
expressive of largeness by naming his successive discoveries
<i>ingens, giganteus, crassus, robustus</i>, and
<i>elephantopus</i>, when he had to employ the superlative
<i>Dinornis maximus</i> to distinguish a species far exceeding
in stature even the stately <i>Dinornis giganteus</i>. In this
colossal bird . . . some of the cervical vertebrae almost equal
in size the neck-bones of a horse! The skeleton in the British
Museum . . . measures 11 feet in height, and . . . some of these
feathered giants attained to a still greater stature."

<hw>Dipper</hw>, <i>n</i>. a vessel with a handle at the top of
the side like a big tin mug. That with which one dips. The
word is not Australian, but is of long standing in