Forms: 7 cattiwake, kittie wark, 8 kettie waike, kittiwaik, (? pl., kittawaax, 7– kittiwake, 9 kittywake. [Named in imitation of its cry. Early spellings show that the last syllable was meant to be (wāk).] Any sea-gull of the genus Rissa; esp. (and primarily) R. tridactyla, the common species of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, a small gull having generally white plumage with black markings on the primaries, very long wings, and the hind toe very short or rudimentary. Also kittiwake gull.
1661. Ray, Three Itin., II. in Lankester, Mem. John Ray (1846), 155. The other birds which nestle in the Basse are these; the scout,… the cattiwake.
1684. Sibbald, Scotia Illustr., Nat. Hist., II. III. vi. 20. Avis Kittiwake, ex Larorum genere, egregii saporis.
1698. in Warrender, Marchmont (1894), 184. Kittie warks, 12 … Rost rabets 6.
1744. Preston, in Phil. Trans., XLIII. 61. There are many Sorts of Wild-fowl; namely, the Dunter Goose,… Solan-Goose,… Kittiwaiks,… &c.
1769. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., IV. 341. In the mouth of the river Forth lie several islands … which abound with Fowl, particularly those called … Kittawaax … about the size of a Dove.
1877. W. Thomson, Voy. Challenger, I. iii. 199. A few kittiwakes … followed the ship for the first few days after we left Teneriffe.
1881. R. Buchanan, God & the Man, II. 263. Innumerable terns and kittiwake gulls were hovering over the vessel.
