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The Collaborative International Dictionary
night bird

Gallinule \Gal"li*nule\, n. [L. gallinula chicken, dim. of gallina hen: cf. F. gallinule.] (Zo["o]l.) One of several wading birds, having long, webless toes, and a frontal shield, belonging to the family Rallidae. They are remarkable for running rapidly over marshes and on floating plants. The purple gallinule of America is Ionornis Martinica, that of the Old World is Porphyrio porphyrio. The common European gallinule ( Gallinula chloropus) is also called moor hen, water hen, water rail, moor coot, night bird, and erroneously dabchick. Closely related to it is the Florida gallinule ( Gallinula galeata).

Note: The purple gallinule of Southern Europe and Asia was formerly believed to be able to detect and report adultery, and for that reason, chiefly, it was commonly domesticated by the ancients.

Wiktionary
night bird

alt. 1 a type of bird associated with the night 2 a human denizen of night. n. 1 a type of bird associated with the night 2 a human denizen of night.

WordNet
night bird

n. any bird associated with night: owl; nightingale; nighthawk; etc

Usage examples of "night bird".

A sudden flapping caused me to leap to my feet before I realized that the source of the sound was just a night bird settling into the branches overhead.

She continued watching, laughing softly, a sound more disturbingly beautiful than a night bird's song, at the twins' antics.

And all this while, over the voices, that night bird never let up&mdash.

The Bard was aware of him, though, moving between the trees, stopping to look at the horses, stepping back into deep wood-shadow to commune with some night bird or other, perhaps testing the night air for some message.

Somewhere a night bird piped, and waves on the beach sounded as if some unseen person was pouring buckets of water upon the sand.

Two eyes blinked at him from a treetop, the curious gaze of a night bird, and the garden statues, half-eaten with lichens, listened deafly to the breeze.

A night bird sang briefly and the broad river lay in unruffled stillness.

Somewhere in the near distance, a night bird sang a cautious two notes.

A shadow passed between her and the moonlighta cloud, a night bird .

Not even a night bird twittered to help him out of his predicament.