sea-snipe
1. A local name for several of the sandpipers, as the dunlin, and the knot.
| 1767 tr. Cranz' Greenland I. 85 The least bird is a sea-snipe. 1862 Wood Illustr. Nat. Hist. II. 700 The Dunlin is known under a variety of names, such as the Stint, the Ox-bird, the Sea-snipe, and the Purre. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 195 Knot (Tringa canutus)... Sea snipe (Dublin). |
2. † a. A kind of gar-fish. Obs. b. The trumpet-fish or snipe-fish, Centriscus scolopax, so called from its long tubular snout.
| 1826–7 J. F. South in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XVIII. 624/2 There are three varieties of it [Esox Belone], one of which, found in North America, is called the Sea Snipe. 1836 Yarrell Brit. Fishes I. 302 The Trumpet-fish. Sea-snipe... Centriscus scolopax. 1859–62 Sir J. Richardson, etc. Mus. Nat. Hist. (1868) II. 132. |