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Definition of Cowbird
1. Noun. North American blackbird that follows cattle and lays eggs in other birds' nests.
Definition of Cowbird
1. n. The cow blackbird (Molothrus ater), an American starling. Like the European cuckoo, it builds no nest, but lays its eggs in the nests of other birds; -- so called because frequently associated with cattle.
Definition of Cowbird
1. Noun. A small North American blackbird (''Molothrus ater'') that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Cowbird
1. a blackbird [n -S]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Cowbird
Literary usage of Cowbird
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Auk: Quarterly Journal of Ornithology by American Ornithologists' Union, Nuttall Ornithological Club (1895)
"The cowbird Wintering in New Hampshire. — I shot a male cowbird {Molothrus atrr}
Jan. 18, 1895, on one of the principal streets of the town. ..."
2. Public School Methods (1921)
"The cowbird is a cousin of the blackbird, which it closely resembles in ...
The cowbird is not a general favorite because of its peculiar nesting habits. ..."
3. Birds of Village and Field: A Bird Book for Beginners by Florence Merriam Bailey (1898)
"Buffalo Bird ' used to be one of the names of the cowbird on the plains, and
Major Bendire says that in the prairie states now " one will rarely see a bunch ..."
4. The Second Book of Birds: Bird Families by Olive Thorne Miller, Harriet (Mann) Miller (1901)
"The COW-BLACKBIRD, or cowbird, is another one of this branch of the Blackbird
... This bird is called cowbird because he is fond of flying about the cows, ..."
5. A Popular Handbook of the Ornithology of Eastern North America by Thomas Nuttall (1896)
"The song of the cowbird is guttural and unmusical, uttered with an air of ...
The cowbird is a common summer resident of New England, though of rather local ..."
6. Birds of California: An Introduction to More Than Three Hundred Common Birds by Irene Grosvenor Wheelock (1903)
"cowbird. — Molothrus ater. FAMILY : The Blackbirds, Orioles, etc. Length: Male
7.75-8.25 ; female 7.25-7.75. Adult Male: Head, neck, and chest uniform ..."
7. Field Book of Birds of the Southwestern United States by Roger Tory Peterson, Gilbert Haven Trafton, Luther E. Wyman, Elizabeth F. Burnell (1916)
"And when the cowbird has visited the nest again and laid her egg in this second
nest, the warbler has been known to build a third nest on top of the other ..."
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