Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A kind of grassfinch; an American bird of the genus Spermophila or some related genus.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Other flagship species include the bizarre long-wattled umbrella bird (Cephalopterus penduliger, VU) and the blue-black grassquit (Volatinia jacarina).
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Several birds, such as the Peruvian song-sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis) and the Pacific blue-black grassquit (Volatinia jacarina) visit the lomas at the beginning of the winter when many insect pupae hatch.
Atacama desert 2007
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The latter entry says "in combination used in names of various small songbirds found in the Caribbean area, e.g. bananaquit, grassquit" and adds that the word is "probably imitative."
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Thus, according to Gosse, the grassquit of Jamaica (Spermophila olivacea) often selects a shrub on which wasps have built, and fixes the entrance to its domed nest close to their cells.
The Naturalist in Nicaragua Thomas Belt 1855
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