cygnine

comparative more cygnine · superlative most cygnine

1. biologyBeing of the genus Cygnus (swans), within subfamily Anserinae of the family Anatidae, though sometimes considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae.

   The genus Choristopus, Eyton, apparently Anserine rather than Cygnine, is said to possess this character […]

   1869, Elliott Coues, On the Classification of Water Birds, Merrihew & Son, published 1870, page 26

2. Of, concerning, relating to, resembling, or characteristic of swans.

   1949, G. L. Hendrickson, Classical Philology, Vol. 44, No. 1, page 30 alternate ...scarcely a translator can be found who conveys any other impression than that Horace becomes a swan before our eyes. One almost wonders in what cygnine dialect the rest of the poem was spoken.

   2 more examples

   But, in the cutting of it, if thou dost shed / One drop of cygnine blood, thy clumsiness...

   1848, Edmund Saul Dixon, Ornamental and Domestic Poultry, page 20

   On the whole, then, the bones of the pectoral arch in Dendrocygna — if we may judge from the two North American species of the genus — are more anatine than they are either anserine or cygnine.

   1915, Zoologische Jahrbücher: Abteilung für Systematik, Geographie und […] , volume 38, page 44

1. dateduncountableAn alkaloid from plants of genus Gastrolobium, found in Australia, principally Western Australia, highly toxic to introduced animals.