devil's birdn.

1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 18 A small blacke Bird long and sharp-winged, constantly flying vpon the surface of the Ocean; vpon view of this Bird (which Sea-men improperly call Deuils Bird) an infallible tempest and storme in lesse then two dayes, assailes the ships.

1788 T. Bankes et al. New & Authentic Syst. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) II. x. 534/2 The Devil's Bird..is peculiar to this island [sc. Guadalupe] and Dominica: it is a bird of passage, of the size of a pullet, and all its plumage coal black.

1813 A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. VII. 90 They have been called Witches; Stormy Petrels; the Devil's Birds; Mother Carey's Chickens.

1865 J. G. Wood Homes without Hands ii. 69 The ignorant sailors, who know, from long experience, that the Petrel is the forerunner of a storm, salute it by the title of Devil's bird.

1898 N. Blanchan Birds that Hunt & are Hunted i. 68 Wilson's Stormy Petrel (Oceanites oceancius) Called also: Mother Carey's Chicken; Devil's Bird.

1917 W. P. Pycraft in C. J. Cornish et al. Birds of Other Lands vi. 49 These birds are popularly supposed to be seen only before stormy weather, and therefore are not welcomed by sailors, who call them ‘Devil's Birds’.

1837 W. Macgillivray Hist. Brit. Birds I. 445 Emberiza citrinella. Yellow Bunting. Yellow-Hammer..Skite. Devil's-Bird.

1866 W. Henderson Notes Folk Lore Northern Counties iv. 91 In Scotland..the pretty little Yellow Hammer is called the ‘devil's bird’, and a superstitious dislike to it extends as far south as Northumberland.

1907 C. Stonham Birds Brit. Islands II. 209 In Scotland it is also known as the ‘Devil's-bird’, because, according to legend, the Devil gives the Yellow-Ammer a drop of his blood in May and hence arise the linear markings on the eggs.

1969 Country Life 28 Aug. 484 In some parts of Britain, particularly the North, the ‘Devil's bird’ and its nest received short shrift from superstitious country folk.

2012 Stirling Observer (Nexis) 13 July 27 Slightly more ominous are several old Scottish interpretations of the call of the yellowhammer, ‘may the devil tak ye’ or, ‘Whetil te, whetil te, whee, Harry my nest and the De'il tak ye’... For reasons best known presumably to those who first dubbed it so, this apparently is ‘the Devil's bird’!

1853 J. J. Watters Nat. Hist. Birds Ireland 57 Willy Wagtail. Devil's Bird.

1885 C. Swainson Provinc. Names Brit. Birds 44 Pied Wagtail..Devil's bird or Deviling (Ireland). From the constant uncanny motion of its tail.

1892 Rochester (Indiana) Daily Republican 13 May The wagtail is called the ‘devil's bird’, for no other reason than that it cleverly evades the missiles thrown at it.

1996 C. I. Macafee Conc. Ulster Dict. 95/2 Devilin, devil's bird, the pied wagtail Motacilla alba yarrelli.