Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Same as
chip-bird .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) The chipping sparrow.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
bird , Spizella passerina, thechipping sparrow .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
hair + bird
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Examples
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I have known the social sparrow, or "hairbird," to build under a shed, in a tuft of hay that hung down, through the loose flooring, from the mow above.
In the Catskills Selections from the Writings of John Burroughs John Burroughs 1879
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The pretty nocturnal trill of the hairbird; the remarkable change which civilization has wrought in the habits of the cliff-swallow; the disputed question whether the cat-bird is or is not a mocker; -- these and a hundred similar points relate to very common birds, and are accordingly unnoticed by Mr. Samuels.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 122, December, 1867 Various
reesetee commented on the word hairbird
Obsolete name for the Chipping Sparrow, so-called for its habit of lining its nest with hair. It once used readily available horsehair, but with the advent of automobiles, the bird adapted to using any hair available. Chipping sparrows have been seen plucking strands from the coats of sleeping dogs.
December 7, 2007