Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of stone curlew.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably so called because the Eurasian stone-curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus) prefers dry grasslands and areas with stony soils, in contrast to the true curlews found in wetland and coastal environments.]

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Examples

  • It is also essential winter habitat for up to 500,000 overwintering ducks and waterbirds such as teal Anas crecca (160,000), wigeon Anas Penelope (100,000), greylag goose Anser anser (100,000), most of Spain's herons, white stork Ciconia ciconia, stone-curlew Burhinus oedicnemus and slender-billed gull Larus genei.

    Doñana National Park, Spain 2008

  • There are more than 2,000 flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber) in Cabo de Gata, and the endangered seagulls, Audouin's gull (Larus audouinii) and slender-billed gull (L. Genei), as well as stone-curlew (Burhinus oedicnemus) are found in Punta Entinas-Sabinar.

    Southeastern Iberian shrubs and woodlands 2007

  • Endangered species include Regent honeyeaters, bush stone-curlew, squatter pigeon, superb parrot, swift parrot, turquoise parrot, gray-crown babbler, painted honey-eater and black-throated finch.

    ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES FOR ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATES 2007

  • Some of these birds build in ravines and clefts, and on cliffs, as, for instance, the so-called charadrius, or stone-curlew; this bird is in no way noteworthy for plumage or voice; it makes an appearance at night, but in the daytime keeps out of sight.

    The History of Animals 2002

  • ” So well recognised among birdfanciers was this valuable property of the stone-curlew that when they had one of these birds for sale they kept it carefully covered, lest a jaundiced person should look at it and be cured for nothing.

    Chapter 3. Sympathetic Magic. § 2. Homoeopathic or Imitative Magic 1922

  • The ancients held that if a person suffering from jaundice looked sharply at a stone-curlew, and the bird looked steadily at him, he was cured of the disease.

    The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion 1922

  • So well recognised among birdfanciers was this valuable property of the stone-curlew that when they had one of these birds for sale they kept it carefully covered, lest a jaundiced person should look at it and be cured for nothing.

    The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion 1922

  • The ancients held that if a person suffering from jaundice looked sharply at a stone-curlew, and the bird looked steadily at him, he was cured of the disease.

    Chapter 3. Sympathetic Magic. § 2. Homoeopathic or Imitative Magic 1922

  • He finds that all bird-dances are not nuptial, but that some birds -- the stone-curlew (or great plover), for example -- have different kinds of dances.

    Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women Havelock Ellis 1899

  • So well recognised among birdfanciers was this valuable property of the stone-curlew that when they had one of these birds for sale they kept it carefully covered, lest a jaundiced person should look at it and be cured for nothing.

    The Golden Bough James George Frazer 1897

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