bird-knocking vbl n
= bird-thrashing vbl n.
1957 Kitchens Trickem 46 swAR (as of 1900–10), Bird-knocking (or bird-thrashing as some called it) was sport and food for the kings, we thought. I remember one night we went bird-knocking. . . It was in cold wintertime and one of the blackest nights I remember in my whole life. Homer, Chester and I had everything ready: lighted torches, plum bush knockers, and a towsack. 1963 Watkins–Watkins Yesterday Hills 106 nGA, Birds roosted in the numerous brushpiles which a farmer made when he cleared a new ground. Children invited their friends, boys and girls, to a bird knocking. . . Three or four held burning torches around a brushpile, and one stomped on the brush to make the birds fly out. The knockers swung limbs and brushes back and forth and up and down. As the blinded birds flew out of the brush, the knockers struck some of them down and killed them. The next day the mother cooked a huge bird pie. c1974 Jones Ozark Hill Boy 9 AR (as of c1920), Bird knocking was a common sport. . . Every new ground had huge brush piles being dried in preparation for burning. These piles made excellent roosting shelters for all types of birds. . . The brush heap was surrounded with boys each of whom had a torch . . held high over the head in one hand and a small thorn bush in the other. Someone would kick the brush heap and the birds would flutter above the heap, having been blinded by the lights. The thorn bush frails went into action and the dead birds were gathered up to be cleaned, salted, and roasted.