‖ pteryla Ornith.
(pt-, ˈtɛrɪlə)
Pl. -æ.
[mod.L. (Nitzsch 1833), f. Gr. πτερ-όν feather + ὕλη wood.]
A definite clump, patch, or area of feathers, one of a number on the skin of a bird, separated by apteria or featherless spaces.
Of such patches or areas Nitzsch in his System of Pterylography (Halle 1840, Eng. tr. by Dallas 1867) recognized eight, viz. the spinal, ventral, neck-, wing-, tail-, shoulder-, femoral, and crural tracts, to which Prof. Newton adds the head-tract, and tract of the oil-gland. The distinctness of these varies greatly in different orders and groups of birds.
| 1867 tr. Nitzsch's Pterylography (Ray Soc.) 3 The feathered regions of the bodies of birds, to which I give the name of feather-tracts (pterylæ, Federnfluren). 1894 Newton Dict. Birds 744 Feathers..are generally restricted to well-defined patches or tracts, which in 1833 received from Nitzsch..the name of pterylæ..or ‘feather-forests’, in opposition to the apteria, or featherless spaces, which intervene. |