stonechat

[stohn-chat]

noun

any of several small Old World birds, especially of the genus Saxicola, as S. torquata.

Origin of stonechat

1775–85; stone + chat, so called from its warning cry which sounds like a clash of stones

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for stonechat

Historical Examples of stonechat

Only once have I seen a stonechat in the neighbourhood of this garden.
In a Cheshire Garden
Geoffrey Egerton-Warburton
It is difficult to put oneself in the place of the Stonechat or of the Whinchat.
Territory in Bird Life
H. Eliot Howard
This was on April 23rd, and there were four eggs of the Stonechat.
Wild Spain (Espaa agreste)
Abel Chapman
But the rock stood still, and a stonechat went and perched on it.
The World's Greatest Books, Vol VI.
Various
That delightful, restless little bird, the stonechat, is a near relation of the wheatear.
Birds in Flight
W. P. Pycraft

British Dictionary definitions for stonechat

stonechat

noun

an Old World songbird, Saxicola torquata, having a black plumage with a reddish-brown breast: subfamily Turdinae (thrushes)

Word Origin for stonechat

C18: so called from its cry, which sounds like clattering pebbles

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012