mutton bird

or mut·ton-bird

noun

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.

Origin of mutton bird

First recorded in 1840–50

Words nearby mutton bird

mutsuhito, mutt, mutt and jeff, mutter, mutton, mutton bird, mutton chop, mutton corn, mutton snapper, muttonbird, muttonbirder

Example sentences from the Web for mutton bird

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

    The Moon Rock |Arthur J. Rees

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

    The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders |Ernest Scott

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

    The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders |Ernest Scott