| 释义 |
‖ motacilla|məʊtəˈsɪlə|
[L. mōtacilla wagtail, perh. f. mōtāre to keep moving; according to Varro so called ‘quod semper movet caudam’; cf. the Eng. name.]
A genus of birds, now restricted to the wagtails, but formerly of wider extent; a bird of this genus.
1752J. Hill Hist. Anim. 505 The Motacilla, with a black breast. The common Wagtail. 1808A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. (1831) I. 256, I saw him..pursuing what I took to be a species of motacilla.
Hence motaˈcillid, -ine, -oid adjs., belonging to or resembling the family Motacillidæ or the sub-family Motacillinæ, of which the genus Motacilla is the type. (In recent Dicts.) |