local. Also 5 suerthbak, 7 swarth bag. [ad. Icel. svartbakur (whence Norw. svartbak, Da. svartbagmaage): see SWART a., SWARTH a. + BACK sb.1 Cf. SWABIE.] The great black-backed gull, Larus marinus.
c. 1450. Holland, Howlat, 180. The Goule was a gryntar, The Suerthbak a sellerar.
1676. Sterpin, Descr. Fœroe, 141. The Swarth bag is a great Bird like a Kite, it is white all over, but the back.
1678. Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., 344. In the Feroe Islands it is called, The Swarth-back.
1805. Barry, Orkney, III. i. 304. The Great Black and White Gull … our black-backed maw, or as it is sometimes called swartback, is the largest of the gull kind in our seas.
1821. Scott, Pirate, x. Thy foot had been on the Maiden-skerrie of Northmaven, known before but to the webbed sole of the swartback. Ibid. [see SWABIE].
