whabby

English

Noun

whabby (plural whabbies)

  1. (regional US and Canada, especially Newfoundland) The red-throated diver.
    • 1792 [original: 1771], Cartwright, i, 143:
      On discovering a whabby swimming in a small pond, […]
    • 1819, Lewis Amadeus Anspach, A History of the Island of Newfoundland: Containing a Description of the Island, the Banks, the Fisheries and Trade of Newfoundland and the Coast of Labrador, page 391:
      The most remarkable of the sea-birds which frequent these coasts are the lord and lady, of the teal kind; the hounds, rather larger than the teal, which migrate to the north in the spring in large flocks, and as they fly, make a continual noise resembling that of a pack of beagles when in chase; the saddle-back, called also blackback, the largest species of gulls; the tinker, or razor-bill; the loon and whabby, both of the diving genus; and the bull, a smaller bird, also called ice-bird.
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