adzebill

noun

adzebill

noun

Etymology From adze + bill.

1

Either of two bird species of the extinct family †Aptornithidae, once endemic to New Zealand.

  • But other large birds were slaughtered – the flightless goose, an enormous rail now known as the adzebill, swans and pelicans, all of them, like the moa, exploited to the point of extinction after little more than 100 years.2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 51:
Derived terms
North Island adzebill, South Island adzebill

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.