snake-birdn.
1. A bird belonging to the genus Plotus, esp. the American species P. anhinga, characterized by its long snake-like neck; the darter or water-turkey.
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the world > animals > birds > order Pelecaniformes > [noun] > member of family Anhingidae (darter)
anhinga1769
snake-bird1791
darter1825
serpent bird1870
Colorado or water-turkeya1889
1791 W. Bartram Trav. N. & S. Carolina 132 Here is..in the waters all over Florida, a very curious and handsome bird, the people call the Snake Birds.
1814 A. Wilson & G. Ord Amer. Ornithol. IX. 79 Black-bellied Darter, or Snake-bird, Plotus melanogaster.
1838 J. J. Audubon Ornithol. Biogr. IV. 136 Anhinga or Snake~bird, Plotus anhinga.
1883 Official Catal. Internat. Fisheries Exhib. (ed. 4) 152 The Darter, sometimes known as the snake bird, is not at all uncommon in Bengal.
1895 R. Lydekker Royal Nat. Hist. IV. 280 The darters, snake-birds, or snake-necks, form a group of four species.
2. dialect. The wryneck, Iynx torquilla.
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the world > animals > birds > perching birds > order Piciformes > [noun] > family Picidae > jynx torquilla (wryneck)
wryneck1585
jynxa1657
yunx1694
barley-bird1766
long tongue1822
cuckoo's mate1831
snake-bird1831
pea-bird1838
writheneck1840
rinding-bird1849
weet-bird1863
mackerel bird1879
felling bird1883
turkey-bird1885
1831 J. Rennie Montagu's Ornithol. Dict. (ed. 2) 576 Long Tongue. Emmet Hunter. Snake Bird.
1844 Zoologist 2 449 The bird..proved to be what is here [i.e. in Kent] provincially called a ‘snake-bird’, and only known among the lower orders by that name.
1848 Zoologist 6 2186 The wryneck [in Norfolk] is the ‘cuckoo's leader’ and ‘snake-bird’.
1889 H. Saunders Man. Brit. Birds 262 When disturbed, the sitting bird makes a loud hissing,..which has led to the popular name of ‘Snake-bird’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1912; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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