BIRDINGS

BIRDING

Bird"ing, n.

Definition: Birdcatching or fowling. Shak. Birding piece, a fowling piece. Shak.

BIRD

Bird, n. Etym: [OE. brid, bred, bird, young bird, bird, AS. bridd young bird.

1. Orig., a chicken; the young of a fowl; a young eaglet; a nestling; and hence, a feathered flying animal (see 2). That ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird. Shak. The brydds [birds] of the aier have nestes. Tyndale (Matt. viii. 20).

2. (Zoöl.)

Definition: A warm-blooded, feathered vertebrate provided with wings. See Aves.

3. Specifically, among sportsmen, a game bird.

4. Fig.: A girl; a maiden. And by my word! the bonny bird In danger shall not tarry. Campbell. Arabian bird, the phenix.

– Bird of Jove, the eagle.

– Bird of Juno, the peacock.

– Bird louse (Zoöl.), a wingless insect of the group Mallophaga, of which the genera and species are very numerous and mostly parasitic upon birds.

– Bird mite (Zoöl.), a small mite (genera Dermanyssus, Dermaleichus and allies) parasitic upon birds. The species are numerous.

– Bird of passage, a migratory bird.

– Bird spider (Zoöl.), a very large South American spider (Mygale avicularia). It is said sometimes to capture and kill small birds.

– Bird tick (Zoöl.), a dipterous insect parasitic upon birds (genus Ornithomyia, and allies), usually winged.

Bird, v. i.

1. To catch or shoot birds.

2. Hence: To seek for game or plunder; to thieve. [R.] B. Jonson.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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