catbird
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From cat + bird, because its cry is said to resemble that of a cat.
Pronunciation [edit]
Noun [edit]
catbird (plural catbirds)
- Either of two species of American mockingbird relatives, the grey catbird, Dumetella carolinensis, and the black catbird, Melanoptila glabrirostris.
- 1832, Sharon Turner, The Sacred History of the World:
- The catbird’s note exactly resembles the voice of a kitten, that a stranger to it would instantly conclude that such an animal "had got bewildered in the branches".
- 1967, William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Vintage 2004, p. 200:
- I recall a catbird high in the water oak above, swinging like a rag amid the branches, jabbering and screeching [...].
- 1832, Sharon Turner, The Sacred History of the World:
- Either of four species of Australasian bowerbirds of the genera Ailuroedus and Scenopooetes.
- A babbler-like bird from eastern Africa, Parophasma galinieri.
