crab-catchern.
1. One who catches crabs.
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1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth VI. 375 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 the West Indies, Ardetta or Butorides virescens.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > freshwater birds > order Ciconiiformes (storks, etc.) > [noun] > family Ardeidae (herons and bitterns) > butorides virescens (green heron)
crab-catcher1699
shitepoke1775
green heron1785
poke1791
crabier1825
fly-up-the-creek1857
1699 W. Dampier Voy. & Descr. ii. ii. 70 Crabcatchers are shaped and coloured like Herons, but they are smaller: They feed on small Crabs no bigger than ones Thumb.
1732 C. Mortimer in Philos. Trans. 1731–2 (Royal Soc.) 37 177 The Crested Bittern. They breed in the Bahama Islands..They are there called Crab-Catchers, because they mostly subsist on Crabs.
1756 P. Browne Civil & Nat. Hist. Jamaica ii. iii. 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.
a1818 M. G. Lewis Jrnl. W. India Proprietor (1834) 319 A bird about the size of a large pigeon..It is called a crab-catcher.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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