[A variant of CLETCH in same sense; app. in its origin a southern dialect form, being found in the Glossaries of Kent, Sussex, Hants, etc.] A CLETCH; a brood of chickens, a ‘laying’ or ‘sitting’ of eggs.
1721. Bradley, Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat., 85. They can renew and make good their lost Clutch of Eggs.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., III. II. (1776), V. 57. These birds … lay generally from forty to fifty eggs at one clutch.
1825. Waterton, Wand. S. Amer., II. i. 154. It must have been hatched in Æolus’s cave, amongst a clutch of squalls and tempests.
1874. Coues, Birds N. W., 302. The eggs … range from three to six in a clutch.
1875. Parish, Sussex Gloss., Clutch, a brood of chickens: a covey of partridges.
1885. Daily News, 13 July, 2/1. In Ireland almost every peasant rears a clutch of geese, a brood of turkeys, or keeps at least a few fowls.
