DCHP-3

baccalao bird

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Spelling variants:
Baccalieu bird.

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

in coastal Labrador and northeast Newfoundland, any of several birds of the family Alcidae, as the puffin, Fratercula artica, the razor-billed auk, Alca torda, the common murre, Uria aalge, and the thick-billed murre, U. lomvia.

Quotations

1819
This observation . . . that birds did not venture to any considerable distance from land, is not so strictly applicable to the Baccalao and other birds in the vicinity of Newfoundland.
1822
This island . . . is famous for the numbers of sea-fowl that frequent it in the breeding season, principally the puffin, called on this coast the Baccalao or Baccalieu bird.
1861
From certain movements or "indications" on the part of the bird, known on the coast as the Barcaliau bird . . . we knew it was migrating to the Funk or Bird Island for the purpose of breeding.
1956
Razor-billed Auk [is also called] Baccaloo, Backalew bird. . . . Ibid. 40: Common Puffin [is also called] Baccalieu bird. . . .
1960
"Baccalieu" (or Baccalo) birds is a traditional name in Newfoundland for the murres nesting on Baccalieu Island, and is usually used only when the birds are in summer plumage.