apterium

American  

[ap-teer-ee-uhm] / æpˈtɪər i əm /

noun

Ornithology.

apteria plural

1. one of the featherless portions of the skin of a bird.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• apterial
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• apteria
  plural

Etymology

Origin of apterium

From New Latin, dating back to 1865–70; see origin at a- ⁶, pter-, -ium

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

apterium apteria

But, the male loses most of the down feathers of the ventral apterium.

From Natural History of the Bell Vireo, Vireo bellii Audubon by Barlow, Jon C.

Ardeae.—Piscivorous, nidicolous, waders; with complicated hypotarsus and with long cervical apteria.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various

Nidifugous, waders; with simple hypotarsus and without cervical apteria.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various

The feathers of birds are not uniformly distributed over the body, but grow only along certain definite tracts known as pterylae, leaving bare spaces or apteria.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various

Ciconiae.—Zoophagous, nidicolous, waders; with simple hypotarsus and without cervical apteria.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7 "Bible" to "Bisectrix" by Various

It is interesting to note that the feathers on the bodies of the flying birds are arranged in tracts, with intervals here and there of quite, or almost, bare skin, called "apteria."

From Our Bird Comrades by Keyser, Leander S. (Leander Sylvester)