nide

plural nides · alternative nid

1. archaiccollectiveA nest of pheasants.

   [A] nide of pheasants are sometimes collected in a very small space, and in the middle of the day conceal themselves very close.

   1809, William Nicholson, “SPORTING”, in The British Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […], volume VI (S … Z), London: Printed by C[harles] Whittingham, […]; for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC, column 2

   4 more examples

   [W]e were highly entertained with the antics of two stoats, who had left their hiding places to commence nocturnal depredations; [...] in the course of a few minutes the whirring of a nide of pheasants convinced us these little vermin had marked them as prey.

   1818, J[ohn] Hassell, “Brentwood”, in Picturesque Rides and Walks, with Excursions by Water, Thirty Miles Round the British Metropolis; Illustrated in a Series of Engravings, Coloured after Nature; […], volume II, London: Printed [by W. Flint] for J. Hassell, […], →OCLC, pages 169–170

   [I]f a hen pheasant takes to new ground, at such a late period of the season, she may be likely to stay and build her nest there, and thus a nide may be lost in the following October.

   1833 January, N. O., “Shooting in January”, in The New Sporting Magazine, volume IV, number XXI, London: Published by Baldwin & Cradock, […], →OCLC, page 173, column 1

   Reynard [i.e., a fox], in his thieving rambles, one night the summer before last visited the pleasure-gardens in Cornbury Park, and there he found and carried off a hen pheasant while sitting on her nest. The same evening a barn-door hen, with a nide of pheasants also disappeared.

   1852 May, “Latitat” [pseudonym], “Anecdotes of Foxes”, in The Sportsman, London: Rogerson & Tuxford, →OCLC, page 347

   The breeding season of the present year has been favourable to young pheasants. The most glowing accounts are from Devon, Cornwall, some of the Midland counties, and from Yorkshire, where the wild nides are strong and healthy, and keepers have been very successful with the hand-reared stock.

   1876 October 7, “The First of October”, in The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News: A High-class Weekly Journal of Sport, Art, Literature, Music, and the Drama, volume VI, number 138, London: Published by George Maddick, Junr., […], published 1877, →OCLC, page 29, column 1

   Synonyms: nid, nye

1. a Polynesian language spoken in Vanuatu.

   Synonyms: Labo, Mewun, Meoun, Meaun