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e dark. [Poetic] So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling. Shak. As the wakeful bird Sings darkling. Milton.

The snakebird, a water bird of the genus Plotus; -- so called because it darts out its long, snakelike neck at its prey. See Snakebird.

Those birds whose young are covered with down when hatched.

A European bird of the Crow family (Corvus monedula), often nesting in church towers and ruins; a jackdaw. The loud daw, his throat displaying, draw The whole assembly of his fellow daws. Waller.

A net for catching small birds.

Separated or broken up; -- said of the crest of birds when the feathers are divergent.

witnesses, etc. In default of, in case of failure or lack of. Cooks could make artificial birds and fishes in default of the real ones. Arbuthnot. -- To suffer a default (Law), to permit an action to be called without appearing to answer.

A dentirostral bird.

Having a toothed bill; -- applied to a group of passerine birds, having the bill notched, and feeding chiefly on insects, as the shrikes and vireos. See Illust. (N) under Beak.

or pluck off the feather of; to deprive of of plumage. On the depluming of the pope every bird had his own feather. Fuller.

The horny covering of the end of the bill of birds.

Having the maxillo-palatine bones united; -- applied to a group of carinate birds (Desmognathæ), including various wading and swimming birds, as the ducks and herons, and also raptorial and other kinds.

Leaping or skipping about. [Obs.] I shot at it [a bird], but it was so desultory that I missed my aim. Gilbert White.

on, etc. Blue devils. See under Blue. -- Cartesian devil. See under Cartesian. -- Devil bird (Zoöl.), one of two or more South African drongo shrikes (Edolius retifer, and E. remifer), believed by the natives to be connected with sorcery. -- Devil may care, reckless, defiant of authority; -- used adjectively. Longfe…

A miner's compass. Dial bird (Zoöl.), an Indian bird (Copsychus saularius), allied to the European robin. The name is also given to other related species. -- Dial lock, a lock provided with one or more plates having numbers or letters upon them. These plates must be adjusted in a certain determined way before the lock…

An extinct eocene bird from New Mexico, larger than the ostrich.

r varieties, or two phases differing in color, independently of age or sex, as in certain birds and insects.

A darling; a favorite. [Obs.] Whilst the birds billing, Each one with his dilling. Drayton.

A genus of extinct, ostrichlike birds of gigantic size, which formerly inhabited New Zealand. See Moa. [Written also Deinornis.]

eptiles, mostly of large size (whence the name). Notwithstanding their size, they present birdlike characters in the skeleton, esp. in the pelvis and hind limbs. Some walked on their three-toed hind feet, thus producing the large "bird tracks," so-called, of mesozoic sandstones; others were five-toed and quadrupedal. S…