Crossword clues for catbird
catbird
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Catbird \Cat"bird\, n. (Zo["o]l.) An American bird ( Galeoscoptes Carolinensis), allied to the mocking bird, and like it capable of imitating the notes of other birds, but less perfectly. Its note resembles at times the mewing of a cat.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1731, common name for the North American thrush (Dumetella Carolinensis), so called from its warning cry, which resembles that of a cat; from cat (n.) + bird (n.1). Catbird seat is a 19c. Dixieism, popularized by Brooklyn Dodgers baseball announcer Red Barber and by author James Thurber (1942).
"She must be a Dodger fan," he had said. "Red Barber announces the Dodger games over the radio and he uses those expressions
--picked 'em up down South." Joey had gone on to explain one or two. "Tearing up the pea patch" meant going on a rampage; "sitting in the catbird seat" means sitting pretty, like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him. [James Thurber, "The Catbird Seat," "The New Yorker," Nov. 14, 1942]
Wiktionary
n. 1 Either of two species of American mockingbird relatives, the grey catbird, (taxlink Dumetella carolinensis species noshow=1), and the black catbird, (taxlink Melanoptila glabrirostris species noshow=1). 2 Any of four species of Australasian bowerbirds of the genera ''Ailuroedus'' and (taxlink Scenopooetes genus noshow=1). 3 A babbler-like bird from eastern Africa, (taxlink Parophasma galinieri species noshow=1).
WordNet
n. any of various birds of the Australian region whose males build ornamented structures resembling bowers in order to attract females [syn: bowerbird]
North American songbird whose call resembles a cat's mewing [syn: gray catbird, Dumetella carolinensis]
Wikipedia
Several unrelated groups of songbirds are called catbirds because of their wailing calls, which resemble a cat's meowing. The genus name Ailuroedus likewise is from the Greek for "cat-singer" or "cat-voiced".
Australasian catbirds are the genera Ailuroedus and the monotypic Scenopooetes. They belong to the bowerbird family (Ptilonorhynchidae) of the basal songbirds:
- Ochre-breasted catbird (Ailuroedus stonii)
- White-eared catbird (Ailuroedus buccoides)
- Tan-capped catbird (Ailuroedus geislerorum)
- Green catbird (Ailuroedus crassirostris)
- Spotted catbird (Ailuroedus melanotis)
- Huon catbird (Ailuroedus astigmaticus)
- Black-capped catbird (Ailuroedus melanocephalus)
- Black-eared catbird (Ailuroedus melanotis)
- Arfak catbird (Ailuroedus arfakianus)
- Northern catbird (Ailuroedus jobiensis)
- Tooth-billed catbird, Scenopooetes dentirostris
New World catbirds are two monotypic genera from the mimid family (Mimidae) of the passeridan superfamily Muscicapoidea. Among the Mimidae, they represent independent basal lineages probably closer to the Caribbean thrasher and trembler assemblage than to the mockingbirds and Toxostoma thrashers:
- Gray catbird, Dumetella carolinensis
- Black catbird, Melanoptila glabrirostris
The Abyssinian catbird (Parophasma galinieri) represents a monotypic genus from Africa. It is tentatively placed in the Old World babbler family (Timaliidae) of the passeridan superfamily Sylvioidea, but possibly closer to the typical warblers of the Sylviidae.
A catbird is any one of several unrelated songbirds with cat-like calls. It may also refer to:
Aircraft- Lockheed Martin CATBird, Lockheed Martin test aircraft
- Scaled Composites Catbird, a high-efficiency five-seat single-engine aircraft
- Louisville Catbirds, a basketball team
- La Crosse Catbirds, a basketball team
- Catbird, an Australian thoroughbred horse that won the Golden Slipper Stakes in 1999
- Catbird, Catwoman's alternate identity in the DC Gothtopia story arc, written by John Layman.
- Catbird Networks, a US computer security software company
- Catbird Records, an US independent record label
- Catbird seat, an idiomatic phrase used to describe an enviable position
Usage examples of "catbird".
He thought about the piroque waiting in the darkness of the snag-piles on Catbird Island, and of the butler lying dead in the storeroom, a glass in his hand.
The rest of the Corvines and Catbirds were burning space beside him, an advancing battle line of the most awesome warriors and fighting machines the Commonwealth had ever produced.
But that afternoon, Beethoven had to compete with mewling catbirds and squawking blue jays and the dolorous sighs of mourning doves.
In those days, when networks consumed money as if there were no tomorrow, correspondents found their own accommodation and were reimbursed More recently, with leaner budgets and accountants in catbird seats, The Evening News 319 the network supplied living quarters--of lesser quality and cheaper.
He singled out Hawk and his tail, Adept, in their Catbird, their combat stances abandoned as they struggled to remain on their feet amid the smells and tastes of two lost engines, severe electronics damage, and hull-integrity failure.
Adept had gotten their Catbird moving again, and she and Hawk were attempting to pursue, but with only a single working engine their effort was clearly futile.
An alert catbird discovered them and began to scold from one of the oaks.
Only a catbird, she told herself, though that was unlikely at this hour.
He went through his reper toire of catbird calls and whippoorwills and sparrows, and then started all over again.
And sending in the spies appealed to me more than doing it myself, sort of like Desmond in the catbird seat.
The leaders of revolutions that win always wind up in the catbird seat.
Then a catbird and a brown thrush sang against a grosbeak and a hermit thrush.
Needless to say, when we finally come to power, and at the rate the Party is booming that won't be long, we'll be in the catbird seat.
But from my perch in this plastic catbird seat out here on the southernmost rim of Key West, the barometer looks to be falling so fast on all fronts that it no longer matters.
I settled back in the catbird seat and listened to the radio for a while, feeling drowsy as the sun got hotter and hotter.