vbl. sb. [f. BIRD’S NEST sb. + -ING1; cf. nutting.] The action or occupation of searching for bird’s-nests.
1772. Barrington, in Phil. Trans., LXII. 314, note. Birds-nesting is confined almost entirely to hedges, and low shrubs.
1806. Duncan, Nelson, 9. He … went out a bird’s-nesting.
1881. Macm. Mag., XLIV. 347. Where is the schoolboy who has not a strong love for bird-nesting?
b. attrib. and ppl. a.
1848. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 273. A man … whose bird-nesting days were spent in the woods near Gifford.
1859. Helps, Friends in C., Ser. II. II. viii. 157. Not that he is a birds’-nesting boy.
