| 释义 |
ˈmutton-bird Austral. and N.Z.
1. a. Either of two species of the genus Puffinus, in New Zealand the sooty shearwater P. griseus, and in Australia the short-tailed shearwater P. tenuirostris. b. An Antarctic petrel of the genus Pterodroma. Also attrib.
1824Latham Gen. Hist. Birds X. 176 This [Petrel] we believe is the species called in Norfolk Island, Mutton Bird; probably from the flesh having somewhat of the flavour of that meat. 1846G. H. Haydon Five Yrs. Australia Felix 47 (Morris), The mutton-bird, or sooty petrel..is about the size of the wood-pigeon of England, and is of a dark colour. These birds are migratory, and are to be seen ranging over the surface of the great southern ocean far from land... Many millions of these birds are destroyed annually for the sake of their feathers and the oil of the young. 1864–5Wood Homes without H. ii. (1868) 63 The ground resembles a rabbit warren, being everywhere undermined by the burrows of the Mutton Bird (Puffinus brevicaudus) the size of a pigeon. 1898F. T. Bullen Cruise Cachalot 358 ‘Mutton birds’. This latter delicacy is a great staple of their [sc. the Maories'] flesh food... When it is being cooked in the usual way, i.e. by grilling, it smells exactly like a piece of roasting mutton. 1905W. B. Where White Man Treads 202 The other day as we opened the mutton-bird burrows, I heard you remonstrate with our lads. 1911A. E. Mack Bush Days 110 On the surface of the water sat a mutton-bird. 1944A. Russell Bush Ways v. 27 The mutton birds make underground nesting burrows. 1954A. Moorehead Rum Jungle ix. 133 It is usually in a gale (known as the ‘mutton bird gale’)..that the main swarm suddenly appears. 1963B. Pearson Coal Flat xxii. 375 Mrs Torere brought out..a half-kerosene tin of cooked mutton-birds preserved in fat. 1965Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 24 Mar. 2/7 Mutton bird rookeries can be found on the coasts. 1970Southerly XXX. 226 The children saw countless thousands of mutton birds passing over the farm, returning from ocean wanderings north of the equator to their nesting colonies on the Bass Strait coasts.
2. a. mutton-bird scrub, tree N.Z., an evergreen shrub or small tree, Senecio reinoldii, of the family Compositæ, bearing dark green leaves and clusters of small yellow flowers.
1898Morris Austral Eng. 310/1 Mutton-bird Tree..so called because the mutton-birds, especially in Foveaux Straits, New Zealand, are fond of sitting under it. 1906Laing & Blackwell Plants N.Z. 438 S[enecio] rotundifolius is the mutton-bird scrub of Stewart Island. Its leaves are much used by tourists for post cards, the white tomentum of the underside affording a suitable surface for writing. 1963Poole & Adams Trees & Shrubs N.Z. 200 S[enecio] reinoldii Endl. Mutton-bird scrub. Shrub or small tree reaching 10 m.
b. slang. In full, mutton-bird eater. (See quot. 1937). Loosely, any Tasmanian.
1937Partridge Dict. Slang 546/1 Mutton-Bird (gen. pl.), a resident in North Tasmania: Southern Tasmanians'. 1941Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 48 Mutton-bird, a resident of Northern Tasmania. Also, ‘mutton-bird eater’.
So mutton-birder, one who catches mutton-birds in season; one who is engaged in the preparation of mutton-birds for the market. Also ˈmutton-birding vbl. n.
1881G. Walch Victoria in 1880 49 Armed with a piece of stout curved wire, fastened at the end of a long stick, the mutton-birder fishes in the holes for his prize. Ibid., One of the sports of the neighbourhood is ‘mutton-birding’. 1900N.Z. Illustr. Mag. II. 919 Mutton-birding on Stewart Island. 1965Austral. Encycl. VI. 234B (caption) A mutton-birder's hut, with casks of dressed and salted mutton-bird carcasses. |