[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That clucks; Clucking-hen, a. a hen that clucks, hence a brooding or sitting hen, a CLOCKER.
1804. Bewick, Brit. Birds (1847), II. 223. They are heard in croaking, clucking converse.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Woodnotes, Wks. (Bohn), I. 429. Clucking hens, and prating fools.
1871. Carlyle, in Mrs. C.’s Lett., I. 121. A clucking hen … sitting safe in its hand-basket.
b. A West Indian Rail (Aramus scolopaceus).
1847. Gosse, Birds Jamaica, 355. The Clucking Hen derives its provincial name from its ordinary voice. Ibid. (1860), Romance Nat. Hist., 18. The harsh screams of the clucking-hen came up from a gloomy gorge.
