Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TERN, n. [L. sterna.]

A common name of certain aquatic fowls of the genus Sterna; as the great tern or sea-swallow, (S. hirundo,) the black tern, the lesser tern, or hooded tern, and the foolish tern, or noddy, (S. stolida.) The brown tern, or brown gull, (S. obscura,) is considered as the young of the pewit gull or sea-crow, before molting. – Ed. Encyc.