stone-smatch, -smitch
(stəʊnsmætʃ, -smɪtʃ)
Also -smach, -smich, corruptly -smick, -smickle.
[f. stone n. + smatch n.2 Cf. G. steinschmätzer.]
A name for the stonechat (also applied to the wheat-ear).
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. 151 Living..upon stony places or open Heaths..Stone Smich. a 1672 Willughby Ornith. ii. xv. §3 (1676) 169 Oenanthe nostra tertia: Muscicapa tertia Aldrov... The Moor-Titling: The Stone-smich or Stone-chatter. 1709 J. Lawson Hist. Carolina 146 The Snow-Birds are most numerous in the North Parts of America... They are like the Stones Smach, or Wheat-Ears. 1736 Ainsworth, Stonesmickle (bird), Muscinapa. 1790 Grose Prov. Gloss. (ed. 2) Suppl., Stone-chat or Stone-smatch, the bird called in the south a wheat-ear. 1797 [see stonechat]. |