pyots

Atlantic swell coming in to fall on the white beach; away over there in the south the fine grays and purples of the giant Suainabhal shone in the sunlight amid the clear air; and the beautiful sea-pyots flew about the rocks, their screaming being the only sound audible in the stillness.

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 12, No. 33, December, 1873 Various

And then, as the _Umpire_ glides into smooth water, and her head is brought round to the light breeze, away goes the anchor with a rattle that awakes a thousand echoes; and all the startled birds among the rocks are calling through the night -- the sea-pyots screaming shrilly, the curlews uttering their warning note, the herons croaking as they wing their slow flight away across the sea.

Macleod of Dare William Black 1869

He thought she would be interested in the extraordinary number and variety of the sea-birds about -- the solemn cormorants sitting on the ledges, the rock-pigeons shooting out from the caves, the sea-pyots whirring along the rocks like lightning-flashes of color, the lordly osprey, with his great wings outstretched and motionless, sailing slowly in the far blue overhead.

Macleod of Dare William Black 1869

Robert Ringhorse used to say, the herd lads shot as mony gleds and pyots as they did game.

St. Ronan's Well Walter Scott 1801

“The waur for the country, Mr. Bindloose,” replied the old lady — “they were decent, considerate men, that didna plague a puir herd callant muckle about a moorfowl or a mawkin, unless he turned common fowler — Sir Robert Ringhorse used to say, the herd lads shot as mony gleds and pyots as they did game. —

Saint Ronan's Well 2008

And where was the loneliness of his life when always, wherever he went by sea or shore, he had these old friends around him -- the red-beaked sea-pyots whirring along the rocks; and the startled curlews, whistling their warning note across the sea; and the shy duck swimming far out on the smooth lochs; to say nothing of the black game that would scarcely move from their perch on the larch-trees as he approached, and the deer that were more distinctly visible on the far heights of Ben-an-Sloich when a slight sprinkling of snow had fallen?

Macleod of Dare William Black 1869

"They were decent, considerate men, that didna plague a puir herd callant muckle about a moorfowl or a mawkin, unless he turned common fowler -- Sir Robert Ringhorse used to say, the herd lads shot as mony gleds and pyots as they did game.

The Proverbs of Scotland Alexander Hislop 1836