[f. CHURR v.]
1. A deep or low trilled or whirring sound made by some birds, etc.
1837. Macgillivray, Hist. Brit. Birds, I. 404. A few mellow notes … intermixed at times with a sort of stifled scream or churr.
1856. Dobell, Lyrics in War Time, Milkm. Song. Churr, churr! goes the cockchafer.
1874. Wood, Nat. Hist., 284. The Goat-sucker, or Nightjar,—Their cry … with the addition of the characteristic ‘chur-r-r, chur-r-r.’
2. Hence, the local name of several birds which make this sound, esp. the Partridge; the White Throat (Sylvia cinerea); the Dunlin; and the Nightjar.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, IV. iii. 83. May-Chit, Spawe, Churre, Peeper, Grindle.
1667. E. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., I. (1684), 6. It wants not … Curlew, Bayning, Dotterel, Roe, Chur.
1864. Atkinson, Prov. Names Birds.
3. Comb. Churr Owl, the Goat-sucker; cf. CHURN OWL.
1885. Swainson, Brit. Birds, 97. Churr Owl (Aberdeen).
