| 释义 |
ratite, a. (and n.) Ornith.|ˈrætaɪt|
[f. L. ratis raft + -ite2. Cf. L. ratītus (of a coin) marked with the figure of a raft.]
Of or belonging to the Ratitæ, a class of birds (so named by Merrem, 1812) having a keelless sternum, as the ostrich, emu, cassowary, etc. (Opposed to carinate.) Also as n., a bird belonging to this group.
1877Newton in Ann. Nat. Hist. Ser. iv. XX. 500 Megistanes was used in 1816 by Vieillot..for the whole group of Ratite Birds then known. 1885― in Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 19/2 The corresponding characters peculiar to the Ratite Division being the disconnected condition of the barbs of the feathers.., the non-existence of the furcula [etc.]. 1911J. A. Leach Austral. Bird Bk. 52 ‘Discontinuous distribution’ as applied to land animals, e.g...ratite birds in South America..implies a land connexion. 1939J. Fisher Birds as Animals iii. 32 Sometimes..it [sc. the hallux] is altogether absent, as it is in auks, bustards and ratite birds. Ibid. vi. 73 Ostriches flock, so do the other ratites. 1978Sci. Amer. July 102/2 Among the other ratites are the ostrich, the emu and the extinct giant moa of New Zealand. 1979Nature 14 June 633/2 The supposed presence of a ratite bird, a member of a group otherwise restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, in the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia is very doubtful.
Hence ˈratitous a.
1880Nature XXI. 347 The avian, and indeed ratitous character of the animal. |