Obs. [Aphetic shortening of ENTRAIL, orig. entraile.] Entrails, intestines, collectively; esp. those of certain birds, as woodcock and snipe, and fishes, as red mullet, which are cooked and eaten with the rest of the flesh.
1764. Smollett, Trav., xviii. (1766), I. 291. The thrush is presented with the trail, because the bird feeds on olives. They may as well eat the trail of a sheep, because it feeds on the aromatic herbs of the mountain.
1772. Wesley, Wks. (1872), X. 387. Those that are fond of his bowels may put them in again, and swallow them as they would the trail of a woodcock.
1804. Farley, Lond. Art Cookery, 40. Baste them with a little butter, and let the trail drop on the toast.
1827. J. H. H., in Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 94. Here [in France] they [larks] are always dressed with the trail, like snipes.
1846. Soyer, Cookery, 227. Take the flesh and trails of the woodcocks from the bones.
