[app. a transposition of the name LADY-COW, which occurs earlier.]

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  1.  A common provincial name of the coleopterous insects of the genus Coccinella; also called Lady-cow, and (more usually) Lady-bird.

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1655.  Sir J. Mennis & J. Smith, Musarum Deliciæ (1817), 37 (N.).

          A paire of buskins they did bring
Of the cow-ladyes corall wing;
Powder’d o’re with spots of jet,
And lin’d with purple-violet.

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1664.  Power, Exp. Philos., I. 30. The Cow-Lady, or spotted Scarabee.

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1746.  Brit. Mag., 97. Our common Cow-Lady or Lady-Bird, as usually called.

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1877.  Stamford Mercury, 24 Aug. A bluish black beetle about the size of a cow-lady has made its appearance.

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  2.  A fly used by anglers; also an artificial fly of similar appearance.

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1676.  Cotton, Angler, 325. The next is a Cow-lady, a little fly.

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1684.  R. H., Sch. Recreat. (1710), 162. Flies proper for every Month…. For May,… the Peacock-fly, the Cow-lady, the Cow-turd fly.

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1799.  G. Smith, Laboratory, II. 290. The cow-lady, a small fly: the wings of a red feather, or stripes of a red hackle of a cock: the body of a peacock’s feather.

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