Employed to express sorrow or grief; worn or used as appropriate to the condition of one bereaved or sorrowing; as, mourning garments; a mourning ring; a mourning pin, and the like.
Mourning bride (Bot.), a garden flower (Scabiosa atropurpurea) with dark purple or crimson flowers in flattened heads.
Mourning dove (Zool.), a wild dove (Zenaidura macroura) found throughout the United States; so named from its plaintive note. Called also Carolina dove.
Mourning warbler (Zool.), an American ground warbler (Geothlypis Philadelphia). The male has the head, neck, and chest, deep ash-gray, mixed with black on the throat and chest; other lower parts are pure yellow.
... the kettles, buckets, and spiles and stopped at the spice thicket to cut a bale of twigs as he passed. He carried one load to the wagon and returned for another. Down wind on swift wing came a bird and entered the bushes. Motionless the Harvester peered at it. A mourning dove had returned to him through snow, skifting over cold earth. It settled on a limb and began dressing its plumage. At that instant a wavering, "Coo coo a'gh coo," broke in sobbing notes from the deep wood. Without paying the slightest heed, the dove finished a wing, ruffled and settled her feathers, ... — The Harvester • Gene Stratton Porter
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