Oscillariaceæ (osilariasee)

pl. [NL., oscine (os'in), a. and n. [Short for oscinine.] those Pa eres which are acromyodian and to their type of structure: as, an oscine bird; an oscine syrinx. Also oscinine, oscinian. alge, typified by the genus Oscillaria, forming dense felted ma es of delicate blue-green threads in running or more abundantly in stagnant fresh water, rarely in salt water, and some- II. n. An oscine bird; a member of the Osci times in thermal springs. The only certainly known nes. method of multiplication is by means of hormogones. Oscines (os'i-nēz), n. pl. [NL., oscillate (os'i-lat), v.; pret. and pp. oscillated, ppr. oscillating. [L. oscillatus, pp. of oscillare (> It. oscillare = Pg. oscillar = Sp. oscilar = F. osciller ), swing, dulum. A jar of water, if you shake it, has a perfectly definite time in which it oscillates , and that is very easily measured, W. K. Clifford, Lectures, I. 201. Hence-2. To vary or fluctuate; waver. His [the Nabob's] weak and unprincipled mind oscillated between servility and insolence. Macaulay, Lord Clive, His [Tyndall's] position obliges him to oscillate between materialism and pantheism, and to present a strange aspect of inconsistency. Dawson, Nature and the Bible, p. 196. Oscillating blower, cylinder, engine. See the nouns. - Oscillating bob. Same as balance - bob. - Oscillating machine. Same as cradle printing - machine (which see, under cradle ). - Oscillating piston. See piston. =Syn. 2. Vacillate, Waver, etc. See fluctuate. (oscin-), a singing bird, esp. in auspices, a divining bird, covered with a horny plate, meeting its fellow in a sharp ridge behind, and the primaries are nine, or ten in number, the first one being short or spurious. The Oscines are regarded as the highest or most perfectly developed representatives of the cla of birds; they constitute the great majority of Pa eres, the non-oscine Pa eres forming another suborder. As originally used by Merrem in his cla ification of birds (1813), Oscines formed one of two divisions of that author's Hymenopodes, and was divided into Oscines conirostres, equivalent to the modern fringilline and tanagrine birds, and Oscines tenuirostres, embracing a great variety of tenuirostral, dentirostral, and cultrirostral birds, together with some, such as Todus and Coracias, now excluded from Oscines. See cut under nightingale. oscinian (o-sin'i-an), a. Same as oscine. A. Newton, 41. [ Oscinidæ (o-sin'i-dē), n . pl . [NL., Oscines + II. trans. To cause to swing or move backward and forward; cause to vibrate or swing -ida .] A family of Diptera , named by Fallen in IMG:content-1886.png:[blocks in formation]