| 释义 |
ˈmocking-bird
[f. mocking ppl. a. Cf. mock-bird.]
1. An American passerine song-bird of the genus Mimus, esp. Mimus polyglottus, characterized by its habit of mimicking the notes of other birds.
1676T. Glover in Phil. Trans. XI. 631 There are also divers kinds of small Birds, whereof the Mocking-bird, the Red-bird, and Humming-bird, are the most remarkable. 1688J. Clayton Let. to Roy. Soc. 12 May (1844) 30 Their mocking Birds may be compared to our singing Thrushes. Ibid. 32 The red Mocking is of a duskish red, or rather brown; it sings very well, but has not so soft a Note as the grey mocking Bird. 1741E. Lucas Jrnls. & Lett. (1850) 11, I promised to tell you when the mocking bird began to sing. 1802Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) II. 155 The Mocking Bird seems to have a singular pleasure in leading other birds astray. 1855W. S. Dallas in Syst. Nat. Hist. II. 296 The hunters in the Southern States know that the moon is rising when they hear the Mocking Bird begin to sing.
2. Applied to other birds having a similar aptitude for mimicry:
a. the Sedge-warbler, Acrocephalus schœnobænus;
b. = butcher-bird;
c. the Blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla;
d. = mocking-wren;
e. the Lyre-bird, Menura superba;
f. = parson-bird 1;
g. the Bhim-raj, Edolius paradiseus (Balfour Cycl. Ind. 1857, p. 133); h. French mocking-bird (U.S.), the Thrasher (Harporhynchus).
a1779J. Cook Voy. Pacific (1784) I. 151 [In New Zealand] A small greenish bird... One would imagine he was surrounded by a hundred different sorts of birds, when the little warbler is near. From this circumstance we named it the mocking bird. 1835W. Yate Acc. N. Zealand ii. (ed. 2) 52 Tui. This remarkable bird, from the versatility of its talents for imitation, has by some been called ‘the Mocking Bird’. 1846G. H. Haydon Five Yrs. in Austral. Felix vi. 131 Numerous pheasants (menura superba). These birds are the mocking birds of Australia. 1860Baird Birds N. Amer. 353 Harporhynchus rufus..French Mocking Bird. 1883Newton in Encycl. Brit. XVI. 541/1 The name Mocking-Bird,..is in England occasionally given to some of the Warblers, especially the Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) and the Sedge-bird (Acrocephalus schœnobænus). 1894― Dict. Birds 582 In North America two Wrens, Thryothorus ludovicianus and T. bewicki, seem to be widely known as ‘Mocking-birds’. |