Tar´sal, a. Relating to the tarsus, or tarso-metatarsus.
Tar´so-metatar´sus, n. The morphologically correct term for the segment, commonly called the tarsus in descriptive ornithology,—that bone reaching from the tibia to the toes, and which is really nearly all metatarsus, but has at its top one of the small tarsal bones confluent with it, so that in itself it comprehends part of tarsus as well as all of metatarsus.
Tar´sus, n. The ankle-bones, collectively. In birds, there are no persistently separate tarsal bones, since the two proximal ones are confluent with the extremity of the tibia, forming its so-called malleoli, and the distal one anchyloses with the metatarsus, leaving the tarsal joint between them, as in reptiles, not between the tarsal bones and the tibia, as in mammalia. But, in descriptive ornithology, the whole segment between the tibia and the toes, commonly called the shank, is usually called tarsus. See, also, Tarso-metatarsus and Metatarsus. (103½.) (N. B. In the foregoing “Explanation,” etc., the word tarsus is defined as used in descriptions, not in its morphologically correct sense.)
Tar´sus, Back of. (106.) See Planta Tarsi.
Tar´sus, Booted. (111.) See Boot.
Taxider´my, a. Art of preparing and preserving skins so as to represent the appearance of the living animal.
Taxonom´ic, a. Classificatory.
Taxon´omy, n. Classification; rational arrangement according to some scientific principle. Biotaxy.
Tec´trices, n. pl. Coverts; the smaller feathers, either of wing or tail, but especially of the former; tail-coverts being calypteria. (72, 73, 83.)
Tec´trices Alæ, n. pl. Wing-coverts.