释义 |
raptorial, a. (and n.)|ræpˈtɔərɪəl| [f. L. type *raptōri-us (cf. prec.) + -al1.] 1. a. Given to seizing prey, predatory; esp. raptorial bird = prec. 4.
1825Vigors & Horsfield in Trans. Linn. Soc. XV. 177 The first order..is the Raptorial Order, or the Birds of Prey. 1854Owen Skel. & Teeth in Orr Circ. Sc., Organ. Nat. I. 226 Raptorial birds take a horizontal position when suspended in the air. 1892W. H. Hudson La Plata 158 Bringing a raptorial insect and a firefly together. 1919T. A. Coward Birds Brit. Isles I. 330 Most raptorial birds are variable in plumage. 1931― Life of Birds vi. 46 The flesh-eating or raptorial birds kill birds which we call useful as well as those which are troublesome. 1968Nature 14 Dec. 1098/1 Declining populations of raptorial and fish⁓eating birds. 1976Field 30 Dec. 1281/1 Goats shot this year have helped to nourish a foundation stock of ten white-tailed eagles, brought over from Norway by special arrangement with the government of that country in an attempt to reintroduce a raptorial bird once native to Britain. b. as n. A bird of prey. (Ogilvie 1882.) 2. Pertaining to, or characteristic of, predatory birds or animals; adapted for seizing prey. Also fig.
1839Jardine Brit. Birds II. 53 With raptorial or predacious manners. 1870H. A. Nicholson Man. Zool. I. 219 In others the first pair of legs are greatly developed, and form powerful raptorial organs, as in the Mantis. 1916Sci. Progress XI. 245 ‘Canto di cigno’..—a droll metaphor having regard to Spallanzani's raptorial countenance. 1933Condor XXXV. 19 Erroneous impressions obscure the true proportions of one prey species to another in raptorial diets. 1955W. Gaddis Recognitions ii. vii. 620 At that instant the room was pierced by a raptorial cry like that of the bird descending. 1973Nature 20 July 179/2 Planktonic crustacea exhibit selective feeding behaviour ranging from passive size selection in Daphnia to raptorial feeding in cyclopoid copepods. So rapˈtorious a.
1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 300 Anterior legs raptorious. 1835Kirby Hab. & Inst. of Anim. II. xv. 59 The raptorious fore leg of the Squillæ. |