| 释义 |
honey-guide
1. (Also honey-guide cuckoo.) A small tropical bird of the predominantly African family Indicatoridæ, which feeds on insects, honey, and beeswax, a habit which makes some species useful as guides to bees' nests.
1777A. Sparrman in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. LXVII. 43 The Dutch settlers thereabouts have given this bird the name of Honig-wyzer, or Honey-guide, from its quality of discovering wild honey to travellers. 1786Chambers' Cycl., Cuculus indicator, a species of cuckow found in the interior parts of Africa..called by the Dutch settlers honig-wyzer or honey-guide. 1798Sporting Mag. XII. 89 A remarkable bird called the Honeyguide. 1843Penny Cycl. XXVI. 59/2 The Honey-Guide Cuckoo. 1865Livingstone Zambesi x. 209 The honey guide is an extraordinary bird; how is it that every member of its family has learned, that all men, white or black, are fond of honey? 1900Ibis 7th Ser. VI. 691 Having heard the story of the Honey-guide before, I was much interested. 1955Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. CCVIII. 1 The honey-guides are a small family of picarian birds related to the barbets, the woodpeckers, and the toucans. 1966E. Palmer Plains of Camdeboo xii. 215 It is not only the honey-guides..that use other birds' nests.
2. A marking in a flower, which serves to insects as a guide to the position of the honey.
1879Lubbock Sci. Lect. 6 The lines and bands by which so many flowers are ornamented have reference to the position of the honey;..these honey-guides are absent in night flowers, where they of course would not show. |