Fissirostral

[Lat. fi us, cleft, split, and rostrum, a bill or beak.] ( Zool. ) Having a bill with a very wide gape, as certain birds. Fi iros'tres, n . pl . [Lat. fin do , I cleave; rostrum , a beak.] ( Zool .) A tribe of birds, order In ce ores, consisting of the Swallows ( Hirundinida ), Swifts, and Goat-suckers. They are distinguished by having the bill short, broad, depre ed, slightly curved, without any tooth, and so deeply cleft as to give peculiar widene to the gape-a structure of great use to birds which Fig . 1023. THE WHIPPOOR WILL. (Goat-sucker family.) prey so exclusively on insects taken on the wing. On account of the food on which they subsist, all the fi irostres migrate from northern countries towards the close of autumn, and return again in spring. Like the raptorial order, or birds of prey so called, the fi irostral tribe is capable of a binary division into diurnal and nocturnal species. diet. Fish'-monger, ( -ming'gr,) n. A vender or seller of fish; a dealer in fish.