[f. CHEEP v. + -ER1.] That which cheeps, a squeaker; applied esp. to the chicks of partridge and grouse: also a provincial name for the Meadow Pipit, etc.
1611. Cotgr., Pioleur, a puler, cheeper, chirper.
1863. Atkinson, Provinc. Danby, Cheeper, a young partridge or grouse … whose cry of alarm is acuter than that of the full grown bird. Ibid. (1864), Provinc. Names of Birds, Moss-cheeper, Grey cheeper, the Meadow Pipit, Anthus pratensis.
1864. [H. W. Wheelwright], Spring in Lapl., 340. When the young [willow grouse] were just cheepers, we used to find the broods much in the little foot-tracks that run through the forest.
1878. Daily News, 12 Sept., 3/1. The general hatch of cheepers, as chick partridges are called, takes place from the 18th to 24th of June.
