"Retractile" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... ordinary tree. They have not the power of "hugging" with which some bears are gifted, and of course cannot ascend in that manner. Neither can they climb as cats do; for although the lion if neither more nor less than a great cat—the biggest of all cats—and is furnished with retractile claws, such as cats have, yet these last are usually so worn and blunted, that the king of beasts can make but little use of them in attempting to climb a tree. For this reason, tree-climbing is altogether ...
— Ran Away to Sea • Mayne Reid
... it to have five pairs of ocelli, the first four seated on corresponding segments, and the posterior pair on the seventh segment or ring, the fifth and sixth rings being eyeless (fig. A). The mouth is very retractile, and the aperture is shaped as in ordinary leeches. The serratures of the teeth, or rather the teeth themselves, are very beautiful. Each of the three 'teeth,' or cutting instruments, is principally muscular, ...
— Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon • J. Emerson Tennent
... talon; dewclaw. Associated Words: ungual, unguicular, retract, retractile, unguiculate, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming
... surface the scales are convex and distinctly imbricate, the bristles arising from the interstices. Thus the under surface of the tail is very rough, and may probably be of use to the animal in climbing." He also refers to the fact that the claws of his specimen are not retractile, and mentions that in the original description both in Latin and English the retractability of the claws is pointed out as a distinction between Gymnura and Tupaia. In the description given of the Sumatran animal both ...
— Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon • Robert A. Sterndale
... the side, and three ocelli forming a triangle. The large thoraceo-abdominal shield is hollowed out behind into two movable valves which cover the first five segments of the abdomen (Fig. 1). The last four segments, of decreasing breadth, are retractile beneath the carapax, as is also the broad plume that terminates them, and which is formed of three short, transparent, and elegantly ciliated bristles. These are the locomotive organs of the animal, ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 • Various
... when this was done the whole question has been finally settled; but the view here developed renders such hypothesis quite unnecessary, by showing that similar results must be produced by the action of principles constantly at work in nature. The powerful retractile talons of the falcon-and the cat-tribes have not been produced or increased by the volition of those animals; but among the different varieties which occurred in the earlier and less highly organized forms of these groups, those always ...
— Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection - A Series of Essays • Alfred Russel Wallace |
