[The only BIRD in an earlier sense (before crows and rooks were included) which is black (or rather dark brown).] A well-known European song-bird, a species of thrush (Merula turdus, L.). In North America the name is given to other birds, e.g., the Gracula quiscala, and Oriolus (Agelaius) phœniceus.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, D j a. For the blacke bride and the thrushe.
1552. Huloet, blacke byrde or owsyl, turdus.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 729. The strongest and stoutest bird that can be, is the Blacke-bird.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1768), I. 412. The blackbird continues in Italy the whole year.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 131. In glass cases are … a white blackbird, and a diver.
Nursery Rhyme. Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
b. loosely = Songster.
1634. Massinger, Very Wom., III. i. You never had such black-birds.
2. fig. Cant name for a captive negro or Polynesian on board a slave or pirate ship.
1881. Chequered Career, 180. The white men on board knew that if once the ‘blackbirds’ burst the hatches … they would soon master the ship.
