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    Synonyms and Definitions

    Use "apteryx" in a sentence

    apteryx example sentences

    apteryx


    1. If about a dozen genera of birds were to become extinct, who would have ventured to surmise that birds might have existed which used their wings solely as flappers, like the logger headed duck (Micropterus of Eyton); as fins in the water and as front legs on the land, like the penguin; as sails, like the ostrich; and functionally for no purpose, like the apteryx? Yet the structure of each of these birds is good for it, under the conditions of life to which it is exposed, for each has to live by a struggle: but it is not necessarily the best possible under all possible conditions


    2. The wing of the penguin is of high service, acting as a fin; it may, therefore, represent the nascent state of the wing: not that I believe this to be the case; it is more probably a reduced organ, modified for a new function: the wing of the Apteryx, on the other hand, is quite useless, and is truly rudimentary


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    Synonyms for "apteryx"

    apteryx kiwi

    "apteryx" definitions

    nocturnal flightless bird of New Zealand having a long neck and stout legs; only surviving representative of the order Apterygiformes