Mother Carey's chicken

English

Noun

Mother Carey's chicken (plural Mother Carey's chickens)

1. (originally nautical) The storm petrel.
   • 1773, James Cook, The Journals, Second Voyage, 27 December:

     A few blue petrels, black sheer-waters and Mather Caries chickens are all the birds we see.

   • 2004, Nicholas Shakespeare, In Tasmania, Harvill Press, p. 36:

     Kemp watched sperm whales and green turtles and hundreds of gulls and petrels – known as “Mother Carey's chickens” – that flew around the ship with piercing screams.