carey's chicken n also carey's chick, carey chick. Cp OED chicken 4: Mother Carey's chicken (1767-); DC Carey: Carey's chick (Nfld: 1953-); see also PALL CAREY for sense 1.
   1 Variety of petrel, esp northern Leach's petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa).
   [1937] 1940 DOYLE (ed) 11 "Two Jinkers": They went battin' Carey's chicks / And said that they were puffins. 1959 MCATEE 4 Carey chick—Leach's petrel. (Nfld, Que.) C 69-7 The kerry-chicken, which lives away out at sea, shows signs of a storm if it is seen near land. P 127-73 Carey chick is a small bird that walks on water.
   2 In clipped form carey: in coastal features, esp shallow waters of an inshore fishing ground identified by the habitual presence of Leach's petrel.
   1953 Nfld & Lab Pilot ii, 550 These include North Carey island ... and Bingham island... 2 2/3 miles north-eastward ... of Carey island. 1966 SCAMMELL 139 ~ [name] of fishing grounds [off Fogo Island]. Q 71-3 ~ shoal on a fishing ground [on the South Coast].
   3 Cpd carey-church: large square lantern at the masthead of a fishing schooner, a lure to the seabird in foggy weather (P 90-69).

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