DCHP-1 Online
baccalao bird Various other spellings. Baccalieu bird. 
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.
See also: barra-couta
- 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 (1928) 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.
- 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.