turr n also tuir, etc [phonetics unavailable]. DC ~ n 1, 2 Nfld ([1856-1]). Prob imitative of both the earlier name MURRE1 and the bird's note. One of several sea-birds hunted as food; Atlantic common murre; BACCALIEU BIRD (Uria aalge aalge); Brünnich's thick-billed murre (U. lomvia lomvia).
[1794] 1968 THOMAS 144 Penguins, Hegdowns, Muirs and Tuirs, Ice Birds ... and a number of other Sea Fowl. [1819] 1977 Lgs in Nfld 16 Turr. Goenet. 1846 TOCQUE 11 The Baccalieu birds, Turs, or Merrs ... have now occupied their isolated breeding places. 1854 [FEILD] 16 ... a tub full of the large eggs of the turs and tinkers, (sea-fowl which breed upon the neighbouring islands). 1866 WILSON 63 Of sea birds, there are the gull, lazy cormorant, twe [ed emend: tur] or baccalao bird, pin-tailed duck or sea-pheasant, eider. 1884 STEARNS 233 They commenced to appear, flying around the boat or resting on the water; all were 'parakeets,' and 'tinkers,' except now and then a solitary 'turre.' 1920 GRENFELL & SPALDING 122 One day a load of wood will find its way to his door. The next a few fresh 'turr,' a very 'fishy' sea auk, are left ever so quietly inside his woodshed. 1940 SCAMMELL 26 "The Shooting of the Bawks": But if they keep this law that's passed, they will not get a taste / Of hawk or noddy, tinker, tur, and not a tickleace. 1951 BURLEIGH & PETERS 251, 254 Atlantic Common Murre... Local names: Turr, Murre, Baccalieu Bird. Voice: Soft, purring notes, suggesting its local name. [1959] 1965 PEACOCK (ed) i, 102 "Tom Bird's Dog": 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. 1960 TUCK 34 A common vernacular name for the murre in Newfoundland is 'turr.' It is used for either species and especially for a bird in winter plumage. T 141/2-652 We had a chicken or a duck or a turr in the oven. 1982 Evening Telegram 10 June, p. 3 The world's largest colony of common murres, or turrs as they are called in Newfoundland, occupies the Funk Island, just off the northeast coast.
