half-feathered

Updated: May 19, 2025

But the sense of security for the young birds was upset by the long flapping wings of a couple of great black-backed gulls which kept on sailing round and round, waiting till the opportunity came to make a hawk-like swoop and carry off some well-fatted, half-feathered young auk.

George Manville Fenn - The Lost Middy: Being the Secret of the Smugglers' Gap