"YELLOW-BELLIED"

 
Sapsucker, Woodpecker, Flycatcher and Other Assorted Critters...
  They are the names you may have thought of when you saw the title, "Yellow-Bellied." Long ago in England, the words are first found (1674) in a description of the belly of an eal (eel) and, in later years, in relation to various reptiles and some of the birds mentioned above. 
   In the United States, however, the words in the 19th century are attached to those who were determined to be "contemptible, low or mean." By the early 20th one, cowardice was implied and it is to those with no backbone that we now turn our attention.

"Yellow-bellied" As A Taunt
 When I recently saw the words, I thought of taunts rather than birds. "Yellow-belly" is what you were called if you were afraid to jump off the bridge or the barn roof, way back when "bullying" was expected and children not so easily traumatized. You may be surprised to learn that the words "yellow-bellied" were used last week in The New York Times in an article about large law firms lacking backbones, not one about birds. Some of them are pictured below, the ones that were bullied and which now are described as "yellow-bellied." Bullying may be generally frowned upon, but it apparently works well when done by a President. The current one has gone after the firms that went after him, or worked for the Dems, and many have agreed to do pro-bono work for the President if they want to get any work from the government. 
 

Sources:
  The OED is where the definitions of "yellow-bellied" are found.
   There are many recent articles about Trump's bullying of law firms and other entities and there will be more articles about the "yellow-bellied" and most of those won't be about birds.
   The impetus for this post is: "The Website Where Lawyers Mock ‘Yellow-Bellied’ Firms Bowing to Trump: Above the Law, a Legal Industry Website With a Long History of Skewering the Nation’s Most Elite Firms, Has Found a Moment and Plenty of Inside Tipsters,"  Elizabeth Williamson, NYT, May 18, 2025.
  For more mocking and skewering of law firms see, ABOVE THE LAW "which takes a behind-the-scenes look at the world of law. The site provides news and insights about the profession’s most colorful personalities and powerful institutions, as well as original commentary on breaking legal developments."
  "Fueled by a stream of inside-the-conference-room exclusives, Above the Law delivers a daily public spanking to what it calls “The Yellow-Bellied Nine.” Those are the elite firms who pledged a collective $1 billion in free legal work to Mr. Trump after he signed executive orders threatening to bar their lawyers from federal buildings, suspend their security clearances and cancel their government contracts. In the words of Above the Law, the firms “folded like a damp cocktail napkin” to the president’s demands for “pro bono payola.”...“I’ve always wondered,” he said, “when pressed, would rich liberal lawyers choose to stay rich or liberal? Now we know.”