Also jaburu. [Tupi-Guarani jabirú; also called jabirú guaçú (guaçú or wassú ‘great’).] A large wading bird of tropical and subtropical America (Mycteria americana), of the stork family. Also applied to the allied Xenorhynchus australis and indicus, and Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis, of the Old World.
[1648. Marcgrave, Hist. Nat. Brasil., 200. Iabiru Brasiliensibus, Belgis vulgo Negro.
1678. Ray, Ornith., III. iii. 276. Jabiru guacu [guaçú] of the Petiguares … I have eaten of it often.]
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1860), II. VI. iv. 179/2. It will be proper to mention the Jabiru and the Jabiru Guacu, both natives of Brazil.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, II. 343. The crane, or jabiru, of Surinam, I can best compare to a stork.
1860. G. Bennett, Gatherings Naturalist Austral., 195 (Morris). In October, 1858, I succeeded in purchasing a fine living specimen of the New Holland Jabiru, or Gigantic Crane of the colonists (Mycteria Australis).
1896. Newton, Dict. Birds, s.v., Very nearly allied to Mycteria, and also commonly called Jabirus, are the birds of the genera Xenorhynchus and Ephippiorhynchus.
