dab-chick

Australian dab-chick Tachybaptushas novaehollandiae and little pied cormorant Phalacrocorax melanoleucus are common at Lake Tegano.

East Rennell, Solomon Islands 2008

But it will no more stay under cover, I find, than a dab-chick will stay under water.

The Prairie Child Arthur Stringer 1912

It sounds very appealing, but every time I try to think it over my heart goes down like a dab-chick.

The Prairie Child Arthur Stringer 1912

Some would have him to be a barnacle goose, others a dab-chick or coot -- none of which can fairly be classed as _aviculæ_ small birds.

Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln A Short Story of One of the Makers of Mediaeval England 1886

Jamie listened open-eyed to his accounts of the moor-hen, flapper, coot, water-rail, dab-chick, and sand-piper, to say nothing of rats in abundance, and an otter now and then.

A Vanished Hand Sarah Doudney 1884

Flashes, the fish in his beak! there the dab-chick dived, and the motion

Complete Project Gutenberg Works of George Meredith George Meredith 1868

But this is a lovely book, in which Morrison, of Queen's University, Ontario, gives us context, geography and history; defines some terms sedan chair, dab-chick, blain, and admits what he doesn't know.

StarTribune.com rss feed 2011

If one happens only to shut the door a little hard, she starts and wriggles like a young dab-chick in the water; and Benwick sits at her elbow, reading verses, or whispering to her, all day long. "

Persuasion Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 1892