zygodactyl, zygodactyle (zigodaktil)

and n. [ zygodactyl us , ornith ., yoketoed: noting those birds, or the feet of those birds, which have the toes disposed in pairs, two before and two behind. In all yoke-toed birds, excepting the trogons, it is the outer anterior toe which is reversed; in trogons, the inner anterior one. See cut under pair - toed and parrot . II. n. A yoke-toed bird; a bird having the toes arranged in pairs. Zygodactyl a (zi-go-dak'ti-lä), n. pl. [NL. (Brandt, 1835), fem. of * zygodactyl us: see zygo dactylous.] 1. A genus of acalephs, of the family Æquoreidæ. It includes some large jellyfishes, 6 or 8 inches in diameter, with long violet streamers, found in the north Atlantic waters. 2. A section of pachydermatous mammals, corresponding to the Suidæ in a broad sense; the swine. The name implied the cloven hoof of these animals, in distinction from the solidungulate or multungulate hoof of the quadrupeds with which swine were formerly cla ed as Pachyderm at a. See Artiodactyl a (with cut). Zygodactylæ (zī-gō-dak'ti-lē), n. pl. [NL.: see Zygodactyl a.] A group of arbor i cole non-pa erine birds whose toes are yoked in pairs, two before and two behind: synonymous with Scan sores (which see). The group is artificial, being framed with reference to the single character expre ed in the name, insistence upon which brings together some birds which belong to different orders, as Psittaci and Picaria, separates the picarian families which are not yoke-toed from their near relatives which are yoke-toed, and ignores the exceptional zygodactylism of the trogons. Various attempts-as by Blyth (1849), Sun devall (1872), and Sclater (1880) - to restrict the name to a part of the birds it origi nally designated, and retain it in the system in a stricter whi sense, have not been entirely succe ful. Also Zygodactyl i. zygodactyle, a. and n. See zygodactyl. zygodactylic (zīgō-dak-til'ik), a. [