jacu
(dʒəˈkuː)
[Pg., f. Tupi jac{uacu}.]
A large, turkey-like, South American game bird of the genus Penelope, esp. P. marail or P. jacquacu; cf. guan.
| 1824 H. E. Lloyd tr. Spix & Martius's Trav. Brazil II. iv. ii. 227 Several species of wood-hens, particularly the pretty Jac{uacu} (Penelope Marail, leucoptera). 1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 227/2 The gallinaceous jac{uacu}s, the hoccus, and different kinds of pigeons, haunt the woods [of Brazil]. 1933 P. Fleming Brazilian Adv. i. xvi. 137 There were a lot of the birds called jac{uacu}, a kind of stringy, dowdy pheasant with subfusc plumage. 1964 A. L. Thomson New Dict. Birds 175/2 There are 12 species of guans, some of them with the names ‘jacu’ and ‘camata’. |