Obs. [a. Sp., Pg. alcatraz, probably (as shown by Devic) a variant of Pg. alcatruz the bucket of a ‘noria,’ or water-raising wheel for irrigation, in Sp. arcaduz, alcaduz, a. Arab. al-qādūs. This name seems to have been applied (perhaps already by the Arabs in Spain) to the Pelican, in accordance with the idea that this bird draws up water in its great beak, in order to carry it to its young in the desert, whence also the Arabs now call it saggā ‘water-carrier’ (Lane). By mistaken identification it was transferred to other large oceanic birds, and by English voyagers to the Frigate-bird, whence eventually, in a modified form, to the ALBATROSS, q.v.]
ǁ 1. Spanish and Portuguese name of the pelican; applied loosely to sea-mews and allied birds.
[1564. Sir J. Hawkins, Voyage (1878), 15. We ankered by a small Island, called Alcatrarsa, wherein … we found nothing but sea-birds, as we call them Ganets, but by the Portingals called Alcatrarses, who for that cause gaue the said Island the same name.
1598. Florio, Alcatrazzi, a birde as bigge as a goose, and liues on fishes, a sea gull.
1623. Minsheu, Sp. Dict., Alcatráz, a kinde of fowle like a seamow, a great eater of fish.]
a. 1700. Addit. MS. 5008 (Halliw.). Ned Gylman took an alcatrash on the mayn topmast yerd, which ys a foolysh byrd, but good lean rank meat.
1852. T. Ross, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., I. iv. 147. The shores … were peopled with alcatras, egrets, and flamingoes. Ibid. (1853), III. xxix. 188. A dreadful slaughter of the young alcatras, grouped in pairs in their nests. This name is given, in Spanish America, to the brown swan-tailed pelican of Buffon.
† 2. Given by English voyagers to another sea-fowl of the same order, the Frigate Bird, Tachypetes aquilus. Obs.
1593–1620. R. Hawkins, Voy. (in 1593) S. Sea (1847), 71. The alcatrace is a sea-fowle … His head like unto the head of a gull, but his bill like unto a snytes bill,… He is almost like to a heronshaw…. He is all blacke, of the colour of a crow, and of little flesh; for he is almost all skinne and bones. He soareth the highest of any fowle that I have seene, and I have not heard of any, that have seene them rest in the sea.
1604. Drayton, Owle, 549. Most like to that sharpe-sighted Alcatras, That beates the Aire above the liquid Glasse.
1692. Coles, Alcatrace, a fowl like a Heron.
† 3. ? A species of albatross (‘prob. the sooty albatross, Diomedea fuliginosa’; Prof. Newton). Obs.
1775. Dalrymple, in Phil. Trans., LXVIII. 403. Two black alcatrasses. Many pintado birds, sheerwaters, etc., one alcatrass.
