Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- In Cuvier's system of classification, a division of his Passerinæ, including the swallows, swifts, and goatsuckers; an artificial group, the original components of which are now separated in different orders.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun plural (Zoöl.) A group of birds having the bill deeply cleft.
Etymologies
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Examples
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A dull sermon, for instance, makes half the congregation "fissirostres."
Love's Meinie Three Lectures on Greek and English Birds John Ruskin 1859
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In the conirostres are the perfections which belong to the incessores as an order, with the conspicuous external feature of a comparatively small notch in their bills; in the dentirostres, the notch is strong and toothlike, (hence the name of the tribe) assimilating them to the raptores; the fissirostres come into analogy with the natatores in the slight development of their feet and their great powers of flight; the tenuirostres have the small mouths and long soft bills of the grallatores.
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation Robert Chambers 1836
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