Cow-bird

[f. COW sb.¹]

  1.  ? See quot.

1816.  Keatinge, Trav. (1817), I. 206. The cow-bird is seen an attendant upon herds of cattle [between Mogador and Morocco]…. He resembles the sea-gull but his plumage is pure white.

  2.  U.S. a. A name for several species of Molothrus, esp. M. ater or M. pecoris (called also cow-blackbird, cow-bunting); so called from their habit of constantly attending cattle. b. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus).

1828.  Audubon, Amer. Ornithol. Biog., I. 18, in Penny Cycl., VIII. 210. From the resemblance of its notes to that word [cow, cow], this Cuckoo is named Cow Bird in nearly every part of the union.

a. 1839.  Nuttall, in Penny Cycl., XV. 308/1. Another of these birds forsook the nest on taking out the Cow-Bird’s egg.

1883.  Burroughs, in Century Mag., Sept., 683/2. The cow-bird makes room for her own illegitimate egg in the nest by removing one of the bird’s own.

  3.  A local name for the Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla Raii.) Swainson, Prov. Names of Birds (1885), 45.