| 释义 |
‖ hoactzin, hoatzin|həʊˈæktsɪn, həʊˈætsɪn|
Also hoazin.
[Said to be the native name, derived from the ‘harsh grating hiss’, which is the voice of the bird.]
A remarkable bird, Opisthocomus hoazin, or O. cristatus, native of tropical America, considered to be the type and sole member of a group named by Huxley Heteromorphæ.
1661Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. Introd. 5 Birds, which are..exoticks, or outlandish, chiefely the American, and they are terrestriall; as..hoactzin..hoactli, heatototl. 1678Ray Willughby's Ornith. 389 Its use in Physic recommends the bird Hoactzin, that utters a sound like its name. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Hoactzin, a Bird of the Bigness of a Hen, which feeds chiefly on Serpents, and is thence call'd by our Sea-men, the Snake-eater of America. 1889Athenæum 2 Mar. 284/2 Mr. Sclater exhibited specimens of the eggs and chicks of the hoatzin..from..British Guiana. 1893Westm. Gaz. 27 Nov. 7/1 Dr. Bowdler Sharpe..mentioned the hoatzin or reptilian bird, which builds its nest just above the water line, near lakes and rivers; the chicks have little claws or hooks on the end of their unfledged wings, with which they can climb up out of the flood if it threatens the security of the nest. |