‖ apterium Ornith.
(æpˈtɪərɪəm)
Pl. -ia.
[mod.L. (Nitzsch 1833), f. Gr. ἀ- priv. (a- 14) + πτερόν feather.]
Each of the featherless spaces on the skin of a bird intervening between the feathered tracts or pterylæ.
| 1867 W. S. Dallas tr. Nitzsch's Pterylography 16 To these feathered bands I give the name of Feather-tracts or Contour-feather-tracts (pterylæ, Federn-fluren), and to the naked bands, or those which are not beset with contour-feathers, that of featherless spaces (apteria, Federn-raine). 1894 [see pteryla]. |