Warbler

[f. WARBLE v.¹ + -ER¹.]

  1.  One who, or something which, warbles or sings; a singer, songster.

1611.  Cotgr., Gasouilleur, a warbler, chirper.

1633.  Massinger, Guardian, IV. ii. And you Warbler, Keep your Wind-pipe moist, that you may not spit and hem, When you should make division.

1673.  M. Stevenson, Norf. Drollery, 19. At her call, Comes Blackbird, Linit, Alph, Thrush, Nightingal, Melodious warblers.

c. 1750.  Shenstone, Elegy, xiv. 20. Nor for the worthless bird of brighter plumes Would change the meanest warbler of my grove.

1818.  Byron, Juan, Ded. iii. Your wish To supersede all warblers here below.

1833.  Tennyson, Dream Fair Wom., 5. Dan Chaucer, the first warbler.

1850.  ‘Sylvanus,’ Bye-lanes & Downs, ii. 23. The sun had not yet risen, and all, save the warblers of the woods, was still.

  b.  slang.

1823.  ‘Jon Bee,’ Dict. Turf, Warblers, singers who go about to ‘free and easy’ meetings, to chaunt for pay, for grog, or for the purpose of putting off benefit-tickets.

  2.  a. In the Old World: Any one of the numerous small plain-colored singing-birds of the family Sylviinae, including the blackcap, white-throat, and others having names in which warbler is the second element, as garden-w., grasshopper-w., REED-WARBLER, sedge-w., willow-w., wood-w.

1773.  Pennant, Genera of Birds, 35. Warblers. Ibid. (1776), Brit. Zool. (ed. 4), I. 329. Dartford Warbler.

1802.  Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), II. 183. Of the warblers in general.

1835.  Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vertebr., 104. Sylvia Suecica, Lath. (Blue-throated Warbler). Ibid., 108. Sylvia Atricapilla, Lath. (Black-cap Warbler).

1890.  C. Dixon, Ann. Bird Life, 41. Of the five species of Warbler that stray here in the spring, three of them, the Aquatic Warbler, the Great Reed Warbler, and the Icterine Warbler, are regular visitors to France.

  b.  In America: One of the small, usually bright-colored, birds, with little power of song, of the family Mniotiltidae.

1783.  Latham, Gen. Synopsis Birds, II. II. 482. Spotted Yellow Warbler, Le Figuier brun de Canada.

1808–14.  A. Wilson, Amer. Ornith. (1831), II. 162. Sylvia autumnalis, Wilson.—Autumnal Warbler.

1871.  Burroughs, Wake-Robin, viii. (1895), 297. Audubon figures and describes over forty different warblers. Ibid. The cerulean warbler, said to be abundant about Niagara; and the mourning ground warbler, which I have found breeding about the head-waters of the Delaware.

1872.  Coues, Key N. Amer. Birds, 93. Helmitherus vermivorus. Worm-eating Warbler.

  c.  In Australia and New Zealand: A bird of the genera Gerygone, Malurus, and others.

1790.  J. White’s Jrnl. Voy. N. S. Wales, App. 256. Superb Warblers.

1889.  Parker, Catal. N. Z. Exhib., 119 (Morris). Grey Warbler (Gerygone flaviventris) also belongs to an Australian genus.

1896.  Aflalo, Nat. Hist. Australia, 136. The Wrens and Warblers—chiefly Maluri, with the allied Amytis and Stipiturus—are purely Australian.

  3.  Sc. A group of grace-notes on the bagpipe.

1875.  Encycl. Brit., III. 235/2. The players introduce among the simple notes of the tune a kind of appoggiatura, consisting of a great number of rapid notes of peculiar embellishment, which they term warblers.

1886.  Stevenson, Kidnapped, xxv. He decorated with a perfect flight of grace-notes, such as pipers love, and call the ‘warblers.’

1894.  J. A. Steuart, In Day of Battle, viii. He owned I was no hand at the warblers.

  4.  Little Warbler: app. the title of a song-book.

  ‘The Little Warbler. Scotch Songs’ is the title of a chapbook of about 1820. There may have been other books with the same title; the British Museum has three collections of songs called ‘The Warbler,’ 1760 (?), 1772, and 1840 (?).

1840.  Thackeray, Barber Cox, Sept. A vast number of things … such as a ball of string, a piece of candle, a comb, a whip-lash, a little warbler. Ibid. (1848), Van. Fair, v. He … bought him … presents of knives,… toffee, Little Warblers, and romantic books.

  5.  attrib. and Comb., as warbler tribe; warbler-like adj.; † warbler thrush, a North American olive-brown thrush.

1817.  Stephens in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., X. 197. Warbler Thrush (Turdus motacilla).

1894.  R. B. Sharpe, Hand-bk. Birds Gt. Brit., I. 102. The mottled warbler-like eggs which are often found.

1907.  Westm. Gaz., 9 Dec., 10/1. With … all the lesser warbler tribe to bear them company.