Ornith. In 7 pl. cahouze. [From its cry.] A bird of the Bermudas, a species of Shearwater (generally understood to be Puffinus obscurus) formerly found in immense numbers, but now nearly exterminated.
1615. Let. of L. Hughes, in Lefroy, Mem. Bermudas (1877), II. 578. About the middle of October, Birds which we call Cahouze and Pimlicoes come in…. When the Cahouze time is out … noddies and sandie birds come in.
1623. Capt. Smith, Hist. Bermudas, in Virginia, 180. Coupers Ile, where were [anno 1614] such infinite numbers of the Birds called Cahowes. Ibid., 171. The Cahow is a Bird of the night, for all the day she lies hid in holes in the Rocks.
1625. Purchas, Pilgrims, IV. 1740. They call it, of the cry which it maketh, Cohow.
1670. S. Clarke, Four Eng. Plantations, 22.
1859. J. M. Jones, Nat. in Bermuda, 93–6. Mr. Hardie learned in June 1847 ‘that the Cahow was still known by its old name.’
