budgerigar
(ˈbʌdʒərɪˌgɑː(r))
Also betcherrygah, betshiregah, bougirigard, budgeragar, budgereg(h)ar, budgery garr, budgregore.
[Native Australian (‘Port Jackson dialect’, Morris Austral English), f. budgeri, boodgeri good + gar cockatoo.]
A small Australian parrot, the grass or zebra parakeet, Melopsittacus undulatus, a popular cage-bird in Britain and elsewhere. Cf. budgie.
| 1847 Leichhardt Overland Exped. 297 The Betshiregah (Melopsittacus undulatus, Gould) were very numerous. 1848 H. W. Haygarth Bush Life in Australia xii. 139 A most brilliant little parrot..about the size of a bullfinch,..called the budgery garr. 1857 W. Howitt Tallangetta I. ii. 48 Young paroquets, the green leeks, and the lovely speckled budgregores. 1857 F. J. A. Hort in A. F. Hort Life & Lett. (1896) I. 388 A small green creature like a miniature cockatoo, called a Budgeragar. 1889 Times 16 Feb. 4/3 Crystal Palace Cagebird Show 1889... Two Australian budgerigars. 1922 E. V. Lucas Genevra's Money xix. 132 Little foreign birds for the most part, avadavats, Java sparrows, budgerigars. 1968 K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 118 Budgerigars came in thousands, wheeling in aerial manœuvres of unbelievable intricacy. |