kittiwake
(ˈkɪtɪweɪk)
Forms: 7 cattiwake, kittie wark, 8 kettie waike, kittiwaik, (? pl., kittawaax, 7– kittiwake, 9 kittywake.
[Named in imitation of its cry. Early spellings show that the last syllable was meant to be (wɑːk).]
Any sea-gull of the genus Rissa; esp. (and primarily) R. tridactyla, the common species of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, a small gull having generally white plumage with black markings on the primaries, very long wings, and the hind toe very short or rudimentary. Also kittiwake gull.
| 1661 Ray Three Itin. ii. in Lankester Mem. John Ray (1846) 155 The other birds which nestle in the Basse are these; the scout,..the cattiwake. 1684 Sibbald Scotia Illustr., Nat. Hist. ii. iii. vi. 20 Avis Kittiwake, ex Larorum genere, egregii saporis. 1698 in Warrender Marchmont (1894) 184 Kittie warks, 12..Rost rabets 6. 1744 Preston in Phil. Trans. XLIII. 61 Many Sorts of Wild fowl;..the Dunter Goose,..Solan-Goose,..Kittiwaiks..etc. 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. IV. 341 In the mouth of the river Forth lie several islands..which abound with Fowl, particularly those called..Kittawaax..about the size of a Dove. 1877 W. Thomson Voy. Challenger I. iii. 199 A few kittiwakes followed the ship for the first days after we left Teneriffe. 1881 R. Buchanan God & the Man II. 263 Innumerable terns and kittiwake gulls were hovering over the vessel. |