bird¹ n
   1 A sea-bird hunted as food or bait; SALT-WATER BIRD.
   [1794] 1968 THOMAS 128 This skinning and taking the Eggs from the Funks is now prohibit'd and they are allow'd to take the Birds only for Bait to catch Fish with. 1924 ENGLAND 177 'Dat'm me life, brud—swilin', fishin', an' birdin'. I knows where to find dem birds!' 1940 SCAMMELL 25 "The Shooting of the Bawks": O Mary dear and did you hear the news I heard today? / We're only 'lowed to kill a bird up to the middle o' May. [1959] 1965 PEACOCK (ed) i, 102 "Tom Bird's Dog": And when you got down 'board your boat your tongue was hanging out, / I don't know how many birds you got, your neighbours never said, / I wish the devil had the turs and Tom Bird's dog was dead. M 69-2 The next morning they were going out 'birding'... the birds were never so thick ... but fire all the guns they like and they couldn't kill a bird. The men were firmly convinced that [Tom] had 'witched' their gun. M 71-104 Birding [means] killing birds (usually turrs).
   2 Attrib bird iron: a flat piece of iron used to singe feathers of a bird prior to cooking.
   M 68-7 ~ a common iron used for swingeing birds. The iron was made red-hot in the stove.
   bird island(s): island where gannets, puffins, murres, etc, nest seasonally on rocky ledges.
   [1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 7 The bird-islands are so continually robbed, that the poor Indians must now find it much more difficult than before, to procure provisions in the summer. 1953 Nfld & Lab Pilot ii, 121 Northward from South Bird island, are the following: North Offer rock ... Hagdown rock ... Wall rock.
   bird rock(s): see bird island.
   1863 HIND [i] 67 Bird Rocks. These are islands of sandstone with perpendicular cliffs on all sides, in which every ledge and fissure is occupied by gannets. 1960 Evening Telegram 29 Feb, p. 2 I shot [the seal] near the bird rocks in the gulf.

Go Back