Altrices

Definitions

  • Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • n. pl Altrices (Zoöl) Nursers, -- a term applied to those birds whose young are hatched in a very immature and helpless condition, so as to require the care of their parents for some time; -- opposed to præcoces.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • altrices In ornithology, one of the primary divisions of the class Aves, or birds. In some systems, as that of Bonaparte, it includes those birds which are hatched in a weak and usually naked condition, and require to be fed for some time in the nest by the parents: opposed to Præcoces, or those birds which run about as soon as they are hatched. Not in use as the name of a subclass of Aves, but recognized as a collective term for birds having the above-given characters, as nearly all land-birds, and some water-birds, as the Herodiones and Steganopodes. Nearly equivalent to Sundevall's term Psilopædes or Gymnopædes. Also called Heterophagi.
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Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
L., nourishes, pl. of altrix,

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