Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A tree-cuckoo of the genus Coccygus, either C. americanus or C. ery-throphthalmus: so named from its cries, often heard in lowering weather, and supposed to predict rain.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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"Is that rain-crow feller still workin 'over in town?"
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The rain-crow or cuckoo (both species) is supposed by all hunters to foretell rain, when its "Kow, kow, kow" is long and hard.
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The cuckoo's cry was singularly attractive and musical, far more so than the rolling, many times repeated, note of our rain-crow.
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The cuckoo's cry was singularly attractive and musical, far more so than the rolling, many times repeated, note of our rain-crow.
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Little he knew of the locust that suddenly whirred his mills of shrillness in the maple-tree, and sounded so hot, hot, hot; or those others that railed at the country quiet from the dim shade around the brick house; or even the rain-crow that sat on the fence and swore to them in the face of a sunny sky that they should see rain ere the day were done.
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A rain-crow was calling softly from a willow tree, and the ripples murmured sorrowfully on the shore.
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A cuckoo droops from a tall wild cherry tree on one side of the road to a tangle of wild grape on the other; he peers out and gives his rain-crow call.
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The miserable rain-crow has made them so like himself that they are fit only to be with him.
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The cuckoo's cry was singularly attractive and musical, far more so than the rolling, many times repeated, note of our rain-crow.
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The woods were still; the sunshine was faint and flickering; the low, guttural notes of a rain-crow broke suddenly on the silence.
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