screecher

English

Etymology

From screech +‎ -er.

Noun

screecher (plural screechers)

1. Agent noun of screech; one who or that which screeches.
2. (dated) A bird of the former category Picariae, distinguished from the songbirds.
   • 1838, The Magazine of natural history and journal of zoology, botany, mineralogy, geology and meteorology, volume 2, page 420:

     The names Strepitores, (screechers), and Cantores, (warblers or songsters), have reference to the conformation of the lower larynx

   • 1839, Edward Blyth, “A Natural History of the Cuckoo”, in The Analyst: A Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature, Natural History, and the Fine Arts, volume 9, page 53:

     Both the Cuckoos and the Moth-hunters pertain to that extensive order of birds which, in an arrangement of the class which I had lately the honour of submitting to the Zoological Society, I designated Strepitores, (or Screechers); an order characterized by numerous physiological agreements, but which embraces many forms externally dissimilar—that is to say, in those adaptive characters which have reference to a special mode of life. It is only in this group, among what have been termed perching birds, that the vocal organ is simple, or furnished with only a single pair of muscles; in consequence of which its various members are unable to inflect the voice

   • 1851, Edward Blyth, transl., The Animal Kingdom, translation of original by Georges baron Cuvier, The Mammalia, Birds, and Reptiles:

     We here, at length, arrive at a sufficiently marked interruption of the series of the class of Birds, to be enabled to introduce some remarks on the affinities of the preceding orders, which we conceive might be arranged most naturally as follow. / I. Scansohes, as limited to the Parrots. / II. Raptores, or the Birds of Prev; which subdivide into two thoroughly distinct sections. / III. Strepitores, Screechers, consisting of all the remainder that are not organized upon the definite type of the Passerine;. It is necessary to subdivide them first into three series, which might be designated Syndactyli, Zygodactyli, and Heterodactyli; the two first of which names, however, do not rigidly apply in every instance, the groups being founded rather upon the aggregate of the organization, than upon any single character.

3. A bird, the common swift, Apus apus.

Derived terms

• devil screecher

See also

• Strepitores

References

• “screecher”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.