326 GLOSSARY. 



Polygamous Mating with more than one female. 



PrcBCoces Birds able to run about and feed themselves at birth. 



PrcBCodal Having the nature of Prcecoces. 



Premaxillaries Same as intermaxillaries. 



Premolars The small grinders ; the teeth between the canines 



and the true molars. 

 Preopercle The membrane bone lying in front of the opercle and 



more or less nearly parallel with it; the " false gill covers." 

 Primary Any one of the ten (often nine, rarely eleven) of the 



large, stiff quills growing upon the pinion or hand-bone of a 



bird, as distinguished from the secondaries, which grow upon 



the fore arm. 

 Primary Wing Coverts The coverts overlying the bases of the 



primaries. 



Projectile Capable of being thrust forward. 

 Protractile Capable of being thrust forward. 

 Pulmonary Pertaining to the lungs. 

 Punctate Dotted with points. 

 Pyloric cceca Glandular appendages in the form of blind sacs 



opening into the alimentary canal of many fishes at the 



pylorus or passage from the stomach to the intestine. 

 Quadrate Nearly square. 



Quadrilocular Four-chambered said of the heart. 

 Quill One of the stiff feathers of the wing or tail of a bird. 



Quincunx Set of five arranged alternately, thus * 



Radius Outer bone of fore arm. 



Ray One of the cartilaginous rods which support the membrane 



of the fin of a fish. 



Rectrices Quills of the tail of a bird. 

 Recurved Curved upward. 

 Remiges Quills of the wing of a bird. 

 Reticulate Marked with a network of lines. 

 Retractile Susceptible of being drawn inward, as a cat's claw. 

 Retrorse Directed backward. 

 Rictal Pertaining to the rictus, as rictal bristles. 

 Rictus Gape of the mouth. 

 Rostral Pertaining to the snout, as rostral plate. 

 Rudimentary Undeveloped. 



