| 释义 |
phœbe2|ˈfiːbɪ|
Also phebe.
[A name imitative of the bird's call, but accommodated in spelling to prec.]
A small North American flycatcher of the genus Sayornis, esp. S. phœbe, which is common in the eastern part of the continent. Also called pewit (3), pewee.
1700J. Green Jrnl. 4 Mar. In Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. (1866) VIII. 216 Cloudy & rainy. heard a Phebe and other birds sing. 1782‘J. H. St. John de Crèvecœur’ Lett. from Amer. Farmer ii. 40 That [sc. a nest] of a swallow was affixed in the corner next to the house; that of a phebe in the other. 1839–40W. Irving Wolfert's R. (1855) 19 Another of our feathered visitors..is the Pe-wit, or Pe-wee, or Phœbe-bird; for he is called by each of these names, from a fancied resemblance to the sound of his monotonous note... They arrive early in the spring... Their first chirp spreads gladness through the house. ‘The Phœbe-birds have come!’ is heard on all sides. 1893Scribner's Mag. June 765/2 Plain, dull-colored peewee or phœbe, sitting on the house⁓gable or on a dead branch..catching insects, or reiterating his own name, ‘phœbe, phœbe’. 1947E. B. White Lett. (1976) 284, I haven't been doing much of anything—just..watching phoebes through binoculars, and mixing drinks. 1961O. L. Austin Birds of World (1962) 209/1 Another flycatcher that announces itself is the Phoebe, the pert olive-grey bird that plasters its mud and moss nest under bridges over country streams. |