rhinoceros bird, noun phrase

Forms:
Also rhinoceros’ bird.
Origin:
South African DutchShow more Probably translation of South African Dutch rhenostervoël, see rhenostervoël.
oxpecker. Also (colloquial) rhino bird.
1822 J. Campbell Trav. in S. Afr. Second Journey I. 282There is a brown bird, about the size of a thrush, called the rhinoceros’ bird, from its perching upon these animals and picking off the bush-lice which fix on them.
1850 R.G.G. Cumming Hunter’s Life I. 344Before I could reach the proper distance to fire, several rhinoceros-birds, by which he was attended, warned him of his impending danger by sticking their bills into his ear, and uttering their harsh, grating cry.
1897 Schulz & Hammar New Africa 130On nearing the bush, the rising of some ‘rhinoceros’ (also known as ‘tick’) birds, with their shrill, peculiar shriek, warned me that the beast was near.
1899 J.G. Millais Breath from Veldt 95 (Swart)I should like to add a few notes from personal observation of the rhinoceros bird (or ‘rhinaster vogel’, as it is called by the Dutch), which to my mind is the most interesting bird I have ever seen.
1937 W.D. De Kok tr. of E.N. Marais’s Soul of White Ant (1973) 54In this country the rhinoceros-bird, which used to relieve the now vanished thick-skinned game of ticks, has undertaken the same office for the thinner-skinned domestic animals.
1947 J. Stevenson-Hamilton Wild Life in S. Afr. 47The black rhinoceros..is often accompanied by rhinoceros birds (Buphaga), which give the alarm on the approach of enemies.
1991 Farmer’s Weekly 25 Jan. 20 (advt)By controlling the cursed ticks on cattle and game, highly toxic poisons also wiped out large numbers of the good old Rhino birds.
oxpecker. Also (colloquial) rhino bird.
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colloquial
rhenostervoël, nounn.rhinoceros-bush, nounn.
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