mockingbirdn.
/ˈmɒkɪŋbəːd/, U.S. /ˈmɑkɪŋˌbərd/ 1.
a. Any of various long-tailed songbirds with greyish plumage belonging to the genus Mimus or related genera of the New World family Mimidae, found mainly in tropical America; spec. (also northern mockingbird) Mimus polyglottos, of Mexico and the southern and eastern United States, noted for its habit of mimicking the calls of other birds.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > non-arboreal (larks, etc.) > [noun] > family Mimidae > genus Mimus
mockingbird1676
Mimus1706
mocker1774
the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > non-arboreal (larks, etc.) > [noun] > family Mimidae > genus Mimus > mimus polyglottus (mocking-bird)
mock-bird1649
mockingbird1676
mocker1774
1676 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 11 631 There are also divers kinds of small Birds, whereof the Mocking-bird, the Red-bird, and Humming-bird, are the most remarkable.
1694 Philos. Trans. 1693 (Royal Soc.) 17 995 The Red Mocking is of a duskish red, or rather brown; it sings very well, but has not so soft a Note as the gray Mocking Bird.
1694 Philos. Trans. 1693 (Royal Soc.) 17 993 Their Mocking Birds may be compared to our Singing Thrushes.
1741 E. Lucas Jrnl. & Lett. (1850) 11 I promised to tell you when the mocking bird began to sing.
1787 T. Jefferson Let. 21 May in Papers (1955) XI. 370 Endeavor, my dear, to make yourself acquainted with the music of this bird, that when you return to your own country you may be able to estimate it's merit in comparison with that of the mocking bird.
1803 W. Bingley Animal Biogr. II. 336 The..Mocking Bird..seems to have a singular pleasure in archly leading other birds astray.
1839 C. Darwin in R. Fitzroy & C. Darwin Narr. Surv. Voy. H.M.S. Adventure & Beagle III. iii. 62 A mocking-bird, Orpheus modulator, called by the inhabitants Calandria, is remarkable, from possessing a song far superior to that of any other bird in the country.
1855 W. 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.
1903 H. Keller Story of my Life ii. 116 The mocking bird does not live in the cold north.
1969 E. Welty Optimist's Daughter (1973) III. i. 108 On top of the tree, the mockingbird threw out his chest and let fall a cascade of song.
1989 Times 3 Jan. 10/1 This was followed by debuts of a northern mockingbird from the United States in Essex.
b. U.S. regional. Any of various other birds of the family Mimidae (now more usually called catbird or thrasher); esp. the brown thrasher, Toxostoma rufum. Usually with distinguishing word.mountain, sandy mockingbird: see the first element.
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1709 J. Lawson New Voy. Carolina 143 The Ground-Mocking-Bird..is the same bigness [as the Mocking-Bird], and of a Cinnamon Colour.
1805 M. Lewis Jrnl. 18 May in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1987) IV. 236 The brown thrush or mocking bird has appeared.
1839 J. J. Audubon Synopsis Birds N. Amer. 88 Black-capped mocking-bird.—Cat bird... From Texas to Massachusetts.
1858 S. F. Baird Birds (U.S. War Dept.: Rep. Explor. Route Pacific IX) ii. 347 (heading) in U.S. Congress. Serial Set (33rd Congr., 2nd Sess.: House of Representatives Executive Doc. 91) Oroscoptes Montanus,..Mountain Mocking Bird.
1860 S. F. Baird Birds N. Amer. 353 Harporhynchus rufus..French Mocking Bird.
1872 E. Coues Key to N. Amer. Birds 75 Sickle-billed thrush. Californian mockingbird. Dark oily olive-brown.
1907 M. O. Wright Birdcraft (ed. 2) 80 Song Thrush, Red Thrush, Brown Mockingbird, Mavis, are four of the local names for this most exultant and..dashing of our song-birds.
1936 T. S. Roberts Birds of Minnesota (ed. 2) II. 109 This song.., together with the seeming mimicry of the songs of other birds, has caused the Thrasher to be sometimes called the ‘Mockingbird of the North’.
1946 L. A. Hausman Field Bk. Eastern Birds 453 Catbird... Other names—Slate-colored mockingbird, gray mockingbird, black mockingbird.
1969 R. J. Longstreet Birds in Florida (ed. 4) 116 Catbird—Other name: Black mockingbird.
2. Any of several birds with an aptitude for mimicking sounds, such as (New Zealand) the tui, Prosthemadura novaeseelandiae, (Australian) a lyrebird, (British regional) the sedge warbler, Acrocephalus schoenoboenus, (U.S.) the loggerhead shrike, Lanius ludovicianus.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > [noun] > family Menuridae (lyre-bird)
mockingbird1777
mountain pheasant1800
Menura1802
lyre-bird1834
buln-buln1857
lyre-tailed pheasant1885
the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > arboreal families > [noun] > family Meliphagidae (honey-eater) > genus Prosthemadera (tui)
poë1773
mockingbird1777
tui1832
parson bird1857
the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > family Muscicapidae (thrushes, etc.) > subfamily Sylviidae (warbler) > [noun] > genus Acrocephalus > species schoenobaenus (sedge warbler)
reed-sparrow1676
chat1704
sedge-bird1738
willow-lark1769
sedge-warbler1776
reed-bird1782
sedge-wren1802
night singer1816
sedge reedling1837
mockingbird1883
fisherman's nightingale1884
sally picker1885
the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > family Muscicapidae (thrushes, etc.) > subfamily Sylviidae (warbler) > [noun] > genus Sylvia > sylvia atricapilla (blackcap)
fig-bird1576
snap-fig1603
beccafico1621
fig-pecker1647
fig-finch1655
black cap1678
fig-eater1678
nettle-monger1712
mockingbird1883
the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > non-arboreal (larks, etc.) > [noun] > family Troglodytidae > genus Thryothorus (mocking wren)
mocking wren1832
mockingbird1894
1777 W. Anderson Jrnl. 25 Feb. in J. Cook Jrnls. (1967) III. ii. 806 [In New Zealand] A small greenish bird... One would imagine he was surrounded by a hundred different sorts when the little warbler is near, from which circumstance we nam'd it the mocking bird.
1822 J. Latham Gen. Hist. Birds II. 7 [The cinereous shrike] is found also as far south as Georgia, and known by the name of Big-headed Mocking Bird.
1825 C. Waterton Wanderings in S. Amer. (1836) ii. 130 The Cassique..is larger than the starling... He goes by no other name than that of mocking bird amongst the colonists.
1835 W. Yate Acct. N.Z. (ed. 2) ii. 52 Tui. This remarkable bird, from the versatility of its talents for imitation, has by some been called ‘the Mocking Bird’.
1846 G. H. Haydon Five Years Austral. Felix vi. 131 Numerous pheasants (menura superba). These birds are the mocking birds of Australia.
1857 E. Balfour Cycl. India 133/1 The Bhim-raj (Edolius paradiseus) is popularly denominated ‘the Mocking-bird’ by Europeans.
1874 Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. 10 371 ‘Logger-head’; ‘butcher bird’; ‘mocking bird’.
1883 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 A. Newton et al. Dict. Birds: Pt. III 582 In North America two Wrens, Thryothorus ludovicianus and T. bewicki, seem to be widely known as ‘Mocking-birds’.
1965 Austral. Encycl. VI. 114/2 Mocking-birds, a term..which in Australia is sometimes used for lyrebirds.
1992 Orcadian 16 Apr. 23/5 Only one bird was there, but he had all the moorland voices in his repertoire; it was our mimicking mavis, the neighbourhood thrush, our ‘mocking bird’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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