[f. CRAB sb.1]
1. One who catches crabs.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VI. IV. ii. (Jod.). The dexterous crabcatcher takes them by the hinder legs in such a manner, that its nippers cannot touch him.
2. A name given to several American species of herons which feed on small crabs; esp., in W. Indies, Ardetta or Butorides virescens.
1699. Dampier, Voy. (1705), II. ii. 66. Crabcatchers are shaped and coloured like Herons, but they are smaller. They feed on small Crabs no bigger than ones Thumb.
1731. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 177. The Crested Bittern. They breed in the Bahama Islands…. They are there called Crab-Catchers, because they mostly subsist on Crabs.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica (1789), 478. The small red-winged Crab-catcher. This is the smallest species of the Crab-catcher in Jamaica…. The whole bird is very beautiful, and not above the size of a pigeon.
a. 1818. M. G. Lewis, Jrnl. W. Ind. (1834), 319. A bird, about the size of a large pigeon…. It is called a crab-catcher.
