sawbill
(ˈsɔːbɪl)
[f. saw n.1 + bill n.2]
A name applied to various birds with serrated bills. a. The mergansers (also sawbill diver or sawbill duck). b. A humming-bird of the genus Rhamphodon (also sawbill humming-bird). c. U.S. A motmot (also sawbill roller).
| 1763 tr. A.S. Le Page du Pratz's Hist. Louisiana II. ii. ii. 235 We are disturbed in the night, by the hideous noise of the numberless water-fowls,..such as cranes, flamingo's, wild geese, herons, saw-bills, ducks, &c. 1833 W. F. Tolmie Jrnl. 1 Sept. (1963) 232 Saw the Sawbill Duck once or twice riding down on a log. 1835 Ibid. 12 June 311 Shot a sawbill with rifle at the upper end of lake. 1843 Yarrell Brit. Birds III. 293 This bird [Mergus merganser] like the Red-breasted Merganser, is also called Saw⁓bill and Jacksaw. 1849 Zoologist VII. 2393 The red-breasted merganser [is] a saw-bill duck. 1856 F. O. Morris Hist. Brit. Birds V. 284 Goosander... Sawbill. Jack-saw. 1861 Gould Trochilidæ I. pl. 1 Grypus nævius. Saw-bill. 1864–5 Wood Homes without H. xiii. (1868) 235 The Sawbill Humming Bird (Grypus nævius). 1869–73 T. R. Jones Cassell's Bk. Birds III. 83 The Saw-bill Rollers (Prionites)..occupy the..forests of South America. 1872 Coues N. Amer. Birds 178 Momotidæ (motmots or saw-bills). 1894 A. Newton Dict. Birds iii. 814 Sawbill, a name commonly given to the Goosander and Merganser. 1973 Nature West Coast (Vancouver Nat. Hist. Soc.) 167 The ‘toothed’ bill, a necessity for holding slippery fish, has earned this bird [sc. the red-breasted merganser] the name ‘sawbill’. |
So ˈsaw-billed a., having a serrated bill.
| 1785 Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds VI. 579 Saw-billed Pelican. 1797 ― in Trans. Linnean Soc. IV. 121 Saw-billed Ducks or Divers. |