Part 148

FLAM´MULATED, a. Pervaded with reddish color.

FLANK, n. Hinder part of side of trunk. (67.)

FLAP, n. See LOMA.

FLEX´ION, n. Bending (of a limb). Opposed to extension.

FLEX´OR, n. Generic name of a muscle that bends a limb or any of its segments.

FLEXU´RA (alæ), n. Bend of the wing; carpal angle; salient angle or prominence formed at the wrist when the wing is folded. (77.)

FLEX´URE, n. See FLEXURA.

FLOC´CULENT, a. Pertaining to the peculiar down of newly hatched or unfledged young birds. (Not used in ornithology in its common sense of flaky.)

FLOC´CUS, n. A peculiar kind of plumage of simple structure (generally downy), found in unfledged birds, at first growing directly from the skin, afterwards for the most part affixed to the tip of the true feather, of which it is the precursor, or rather the first-formed part; and finally falling off. In psilopædic birds the floccus is only associated with the true plumage, sprouting from the future pterylæ alone; in ptilopædic birds it also sprouts from the apteria, and in so far is unconnected with future plumage; the whole body is in such cases densely clothed. (Sundevall.)

FΫTUS, n. Same as FETUS (which see).

FOL´LICLE, n. Minute secretory sac.

FOLLIC´ULAR, FOLLIC´ULATE, a. Having follicles; composed of follicles.

FOOT, n. (112.) See PES.

FOOT-JOINT, n. Junction of toes collectively with the metatarsus. (100.) See PODARTHRUM.

FORA´MEN, n.; pl. foram´ina. Hole; opening; perforation. Foramen magnum, the large hole in the occipital bone transmitting the neural axis. Foramen lacerum, irregular vacuity between certain bones at base of skull. The foramen rotundum transmits the optic nerve; foramen ovale, the trigeminal nerve; the latter is also a name of the opening between right and left sides of the heart.

FORE´HEAD, n. Front of head from bill to crown. (34.) See FRONS.

FORE-NECK, a. Whole front of collum, from chin to breast; whole throat. (51.) See GUTTUR.

FOR´FICATE, a. Deeply forked.

FORKED (tail), a. Having the outer feathers longest, the rest gradually successively shortened to the middle pair; when these are again lengthened somewhat, the tail is said to be doubly forked.

FOS´SA, n.; pl. fossæ. Ditch; excavated place. Used chiefly in the plural to denote the pits or grooves in which most birds’ nostrils open.

FOS´SIL, a. or n. Dug out of the ground. Particularly, any organized body, or remains, trace, or mould of such body, naturally buried in past time by geologic agencies. The Archæopteryx macrurus, of the Jurassic formation of Solenhofen, a mesozoic bird, is the oldest known ornithic fossil.

FOSSO´RIAL, a. Digging into the earth for a habitation.

FOS´TER. This word and its various compounds are used in their common senses in treating of the relations of young cowbirds and young cuckoos with the birds upon which they are parasitic.

FO´VEA, n. A slight depression.

FREE, a. Said of the leg when not enclosed to the knee in the common integument of the body.

FRE´NUM, a. Bridle; hence, any cheek-stripe.

FRINGE, n. Marginal membrane; also, marginal row of feathers. (135.) See LOMA.

FRINGED TOE. (134.)