mutton bird

or mutton-bird

noun

1. any of several long-winged seabirds, often used as food, especially Puffinus tenuirostris short-tailed shearwater of Australia and Puffinus griseus sooty shearwater, which breeds in the Southern Hemisphere and winters in the Northern Hemisphere.

Word History and Origins

Origin of mutton bird¹

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

They were employed as slaves on some islands, to strip the mutton bird, and in whatever irksome labor was within their capacity.

From Project Gutenberg

For food, there was shell-fish and mutton-bird eggs, with no lack of boiling water to cook them.

From Project Gutenberg

Starvation stared them in the face, when it was discovered that Mount Pitt was honeycombed with mutton-bird burrows.

From Project Gutenberg

The mutton-bird, it will therefore be allowed, is the most prolific of all avian colonists.

From Project Gutenberg