Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bird of the family Procellariidæ and genus Œstrelata; one of several kinds of petrels found in the southern seas, as Œ. lessoni, which is also called white night-hawk. See cut at Œstrelata.

Etymologies

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Examples

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

    The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders Scott, Ernest, 1868-1939 1914

  • Many people who are not hunger-driven profess to relish young mutton-bird, whose flesh is like neither fish nor fowl, but an oily blend of both.

    The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders Scott, Ernest, 1868-1939 1914

  • 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 Scott, Ernest, 1868-1939 1914

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

    The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders Ernest Scott 1903

  • 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 1903

  • Many people who are not hunger-driven profess to relish young mutton-bird, whose flesh is like neither fish nor fowl, but an oily blend of both.

    The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders Ernest Scott 1903

  • a mutton-bird (plucked and ready for Sunday's cooking), and other little trifles went, also.

    Over the Sliprails Henry Lawson 1894

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