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Tern   Listen
noun
Tern  n.  (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of long-winged aquatic birds, allied to the gulls, and belonging to Sterna and various allied genera. Note: Terns differ from gulls chiefly in their graceful form, in their weaker and more slender bills and feet, and their longer and more pointed wings. The tail is usually forked. Most of the species are white with the back and wings pale gray, and often with a dark head. The common European tern (Sterna hirundo) is found also in Asia and America. Among other American species are the arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea), the roseate tern (Sterna Dougalli), the least tern (Sterna Antillarum), the royal tern (Sterna maxima), and the sooty tern (Sterna fuliginosa).
Hooded tern. See Fairy bird, under Fairy.
Marsh tern, any tern of the genus Hydrochelidon. They frequent marshes and rivers and feed largely upon insects.
River tern, any tern belonging to Seena or allied genera which frequent rivers.
Sea tern, any tern of the genus Thalasseus. Terns of this genus have very long, pointed wings, and chiefly frequent seas and the mouths of large rivers.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Tern" Quotes from Famous Books



... and then the three talked over the details. Cadmus said it was a good tern miles to the nearest point of the mainland, but that he was certain he could steer almost a straight ...
— The Rover Boys on the Great Lakes • Arthur M. Winfield

... Shropshire, there lived, in the reign of George the First, a Mr. Richard Clive—a man whose comparatively meagre abilities were divided between the profession of the law and the cares of a small and not very valuable estate. In the little town on the river Tern, within sight of the old church built by Stephen, whose architectural characteristics were then happily unaltered by the hand of the {255} eighteenth century restorer, the Clives had been born and given in marriage and died, and repeated the round ever since the twelfth century. ...
— A History of the Four Georges, Volume II (of 4) • Justin McCarthy

... now running along the brink of a glimmering loch, the piled mountains on the farther shore perfectly mirrored; a tern or two lazily fishing; a delicate summer sky smiling above. All ...
— Count Bunker • J. Storer Clouston

... now fourteen notches on the loom of the Skyeman's oar:—So many days since we had pushed from the fore-chains of the Arcturion. But as yet, no floating bough, no tern, noddy, nor reef-bird, to denote our proximity to land. In that long calm, whither might not the currents have ...
— Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. I (of 2) • Herman Melville

... readers must remember that Drinkwater's rs are absolutely unpronounced when they follow a vowel, though they modify the vowel very considerably. Thus, luggage is pronounced by him as laggige, but turn is not pronounced as tern, but as teun with the eu sounded as in French. The London r seems thoroughly understood in America, with the result, however, that the use of the r by Artemus Ward and other American dialect writers causes Irish people to misread them grotesquely. I once saw the pronunciation of ...
— Captain Brassbound's Conversion • George Bernard Shaw

... only two kinds of birds—the booby and the noddy. The former is a species of gannet, and the latter a tern. Both are of a tame and stupid disposition, and are so unaccustomed to visitors, that I could have killed any number of them with my geological hammer. The booby lays her eggs on the bare rock; but the tern makes a very simple nest with seaweed. By the ...
— A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World - The Voyage Of The Beagle • Charles Darwin

... Woodpecker Bittern Barn-swallow Wilson's Snipe Whip-poor-will Long-biller Curlew Night Hawk Purple Gallinule Belted Kingfisher Canada Goose Kingbird Wood Duck Woodthrush Hooded Merganser Catbird Double-crested Cormorant White-bellied Nuthatch Arctic Tern Brown Creeper Great Northern Diver Bohemian Chatterer Stormy Petrel Great Northern Shrike Arctic ...
— Two Little Savages • Ernest Thompson Seton

... are birds having a Gull or Tern-like form and with a hooked bill, the base of which is covered with a scaly shield. They have webbed feet and are able to swim and dive, but they commonly get their living by preying upon the Gulls and Terns, overtaking them by their superior speed and by ...
— The Bird Book • Chester A. Reed

... day, and the stone man walked along the shore, listening to the tolling of the bells for Oscar the king. He raised the stones and looked for tadpoles and sticklebacks, but could find none; not a fish was visible in the water, and consequently there was not a sign of a sea-gull or a tern. Then he felt that a curse rested on the mountain, a curse so strong that it kept even the fishes and the birds away. He fell to considering the life he was leading. He had lost his name, both Christian and surname, and was no more now than No. 65, a name written ...
— In Midsummer Days and Other Tales • August Strindberg

... echoes with many a shot at the numerous swans or ducks. At length another change took place in the general course of the river which from west turned to east-south-east. The height of the banks appeared to diminish rapidly and a very numerous flock of the small sea-swallow or tern indicated our vicinity to the sea. The slow-flying pelican also with its huge bill pursued, regardless of strangers its straight-forward ...
— Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Vol 2 (of 2) • Thomas Mitchell



Words linked to "Tern" :   Sterninae, Sterna hirundo, larid



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