- weathercock. This very public aid to meteorology, according to Linlithgow Burgh Records, in 1629, cost Tenn pundis for wpputting of the weddercok on the steipill heid.
The inconstant bird provided a nickname for swithering bishops: Some call the bishops weather cocks, Who where their heads were, turn their docks (Samuel Colvil The Whigs Supplication, or, The Scots Hudibras 1681).