Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Catbird
Cat′bird
,Noun.
(Zool.)
An American bird (
Galeoscoptes Carolinensis
), allied to the mocking bird, and like it capable of imitating the notes of other birds, but less perfectly. Its note resembles at times the mewing of a cat. Definition 2024
catbird
catbird
See also: cat bird
English
Alternative forms
Noun
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:
- Any of four species of Australasian bowerbirds of the genera Ailuroedus and Scenopooetes.
- 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber 2003, p. 185:
- The cat bird had a forlorn cry, like a whimpering child or the animal it is named for.
- 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber and Faber 2003, p. 185:
- A babbler-like bird from eastern Africa, Parophasma galinieri.
See also
- Ailuroedus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies