What is "brownback"

Sandpiper \Sand"pi`per\, n.

1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of small limicoline game birds belonging to Tringa, Actodromas, Ereunetes, and various allied genera of the family Tringid[ae].

   Note: The most important North American species are the pectoral sandpiper ( Tringa maculata), called also brownback, grass snipe, and jacksnipe; the red-backed, or black-breasted, sandpiper, or dunlin ( T. alpina); the purple sandpiper ( T. maritima: the red-breasted sandpiper, or knot ( T. canutus); the semipalmated sandpiper ( Ereunetes pusillus); the spotted sandpiper, or teeter-tail ( Actitis macularia); the buff-breasted sandpiper ( Tryngites subruficollis), and the Bartramian sandpiper, or upland plover. See under Upland. Among the European species are the dunlin, the knot, the ruff, the sanderling, and the common sandpiper ( Actitis hypoleucus syn. Tringoides hypoleucus), called also fiddler, peeper, pleeps, weet-weet, and summer snipe. Some of the small plovers and tattlers are also called sandpipers.

2. (Zo["o]l.) A small lamprey eel; the pride.

   Curlew sandpiper. See under Curlew.

   Stilt sandpiper. See under Stilt.

Dowitcher \Dow"itch*er\, n. (Zo["o]l.) The red-breasted or gray snipe ( Macrorhamphus griseus); -- called also brownback, and grayback.

n. A bird, the dowitcher or red-breasted snipe. vb. To create a rule, regulation, or law only to then violate it.

Brownback is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

• Sam Brownback, governor of Kansas and former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate (2008)
• Peter Brownback, American military officer and lawyer