Dictionary

Mother Carey's chicken en · NOUN

Meanings

1. The storm petrel.
   • There is no doubt that the stormy petrel has learned to imitate the motion of the waves, flying with motions not unlike those of certain fish. […] These strange little "water-witches" or Mother Carey's chickens are familiar to all sea-travellers. c. 1917, Royal Dixon, The human side of birds, page 215:
   • Kemp watched sperm whales and green turtles and hundreds of gulls and petrels – known as “Mother Carey's chickens” – that flew around the ship with piercing screams. 2004, Nicholas Shakespeare, In Tasmania, Harvill Press, page 36
   • A few blue petrels, black sheer-waters and Mather Caries chickens are all the birds we see. 1773, James Cook, The Journals, Second Voyage, 27 December
   • Ten or fifteen dark little birds […] these are "Mother Carey's chickens," the "water-witches," Stormy Petrels, which are so familiar to the eye of the sailor, and the sight of which he dreads so much; […] 1874, Alfred Edmund Brehm, Bird-life, tr. by H.M. Labouchere and W. Jesse, page 866:

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