cow-birdn.
1. ? See quot. 1816.
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1816 M. Keating Trav. (1817) I. 206 The cow-bird is seen an attendant upon herds of cattle [between Mogador and Morocco]..He resembles the sea-gull but his plumage is pure white.
2. U.S.
a. A name for several species of Molothrus, esp. M. ater or M. pecoris (called also cow-blackbird, cow-bunting); so called from their habit of constantly attending cattle.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > arboreal families > family Icteridae > [noun] > genus Molothrus (cow-bird)
cowpen-bird1731
cattle-bird1837
cow-birda1839
cow bunting1839
cow-troopial1839
cow blackbird1844
a1839 Nuttall in Penny Cycl. XV. 308/1 Another of these birds forsook the nest on taking out the Cow-Bird's egg.
1883 Cent. Mag. Sept. 683/2 The cow-bird makes room for her own illegitimate egg in the nest by removing one of the bird's own.
b. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo ( Coccyzus americanus).
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the world > animals > birds > perching birds > order Cuculiformes (cuckoos, etc.) > [noun] > family Cuculidae > member of genus Coccyzus
mangrove cuckoo1782
rain crow1806
yellow-billed cuckoo1811
cow-bird1828
1828 J. J. Audubon Ornithol. Biogr. I. 18 in Penny Cycl. VIII. 210 From the resemblance of its notes to that word [cow, cow], this Cuckoo is named Cow Bird in nearly every part of the union.
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3. A local name for the Yellow Wagtail ( Motacilla Raii.) Swainson, Prov. Names of Birds (1885) 45.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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n.1816