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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ortolan

Ortolan \Or"to*lan\, n. [F., fr. It. ortolano ortolan, gardener, fr. L. hortulanus gardener, fr. hortulus, dim. of hortus garden. So called because it frequents the hedges of gardens. See Yard an inclosure, and cf. Hortulan.] (Zo["o]l.)

  1. A European singing bird ( Emberiza hortulana), about the size of the lark, with black wings. It is esteemed delicious food when fattened. Called also bunting.

  2. In England, the wheatear ( Saxicola [oe]nanthe).

  3. In America, the sora, or Carolina rail ( Porzana Carolina). See Sora.

Wiktionary
ortolan

n. 1 A small European migratory bunting, (taxlink Emberiza hortulana species noshow=1), once eaten whole as a delicacy. 2 (context US English) Any of various similar birds, especially the bobolink, sora, or snow bunting.

WordNet
ortolan

n. brownish Old World bunting often eaten as a delicacy [syn: ortolan bunting, Emberiza hortulana]

Wikipedia
Ortolan

Ortolan may refer to:

Usage examples of "ortolan".

He was not quite sure what sort of a bird an ortolan was, but it sounded far-off and romantic.

Sophia as a most delicious morsel, indeed to regard her with the same desires which an ortolan inspires into the soul of an epicure.

Blood stopped at the corner of rue Mouffetard and rue Ortolan, which is where it must have happened.

Suor Maria Celeste, for her part, had no better luck procuring the tiny ortolan buntings that Galileo craved and could not get in Siena.

Within an hour the guests were seated around a board which creaked under the great pasties and joints of meat, varied by those more dainty dishes in which the French excelled, the spiced ortolan and the truffled beccaficoes.

It might have seemed that the cavaliere was going to entertain all the Ancients of the Republic, to judge by the capons and turkeys, the strings of ortolans, the quails, the partridges, roasting, basting or getting trussed.

We Romans cram ourselves with ortolans, drown in sauce, and poison ourselves with spice.

Let us not mistake the nature of a real civilization, nor suppose we have it because we can convert crude iron into the most delicate mechanism, or transport ourselves sixty miles an hour, or even if we shall refine our carnal tastes so as to be satisfied at dinner with the tongues of ortolans and the breasts of singing-birds.

A seat for a Metropolitan borough, or a love of ortolans, or a taste even for new boots will ruin a man who puts himself in the way of ruin.

I really wanted to send you the ortolans, but in the end none have been found, and I hear they fly away when the thrushes arrive.

You have been unlucky in the ortolans, just as I was foiled by the gray partridges, because I lost them to the goshawk falcon.

Telmon had carried a sling, too, and had taught Yama how to use it to hurl stones with killing force at ortolans and marmots.

Within an hour the guests were seated around a board which creaked under the great pasties and joints of meat, varied by those more dainty dishes in which the French excelled, the spiced ortolan and the truffled beccaficoes.

We Romans cram ourselves with ortolans, drown in sauce, and poison ourselves with spice.

Let us not mistake the nature of a real civilization, nor suppose we have it because we can convert crude iron into the most delicate mechanism, or transport ourselves sixty miles an hour, or even if we shall refine our carnal tastes so as to be satisfied at dinner with the tongues of ortolans and the breasts of singing-birds.