spine-tailn.
1.
a. Ornithology. One or other of several birds of unrelated genera characterized by their stiff, spine-like or mucronate tail-feathers.
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spine-tail1839
1839 J. J. Audubon Synopsis Birds N. Amer. 33 Chætura, Spine-tail.
1839 J. J. Audubon Synopsis Birds N. Amer. 33 Chætura pelasgia, American Spine-tail.
c1880 Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 111 The third family of the Mesomyodi, or Songless Birds, the Spine-tails (Dendrocolaptidæ).
1890 Cent. Dict. Orthonyx, a remarkable Australian genus of passerine birds; the spinetails.
1891 Cent. Dict. Spine-tail, the ruddy duck, Erismatura rubida.
1893 W. H. Hudson Naturalist in La Plata 371 Small Spine-tail [Synallaxis phryganophila] and Nest.
b. attributive in spine-tail grouse, spine-tail swift.
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1884 E. Coues Key to N. Amer. Birds (ed. 2) 457 Chæturinæ, Spine-tail Swifts.
1884 E. Coues Key to N. Amer. Birds (ed. 2) 580 Centrocercus,..Spine-tail Grouse.
2. Ichthyology. (See quots.)
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1851 P. H. Gosse Nat. Hist.: Fishes 147 Teuthididæ. (Spine-tails.)
1851 P. H. Gosse Nat. Hist.: Fishes 148 In form and general appearance the Spine-tails resemble the Chætodons.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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