a. and sb. Ornith. [f. mod.L. lāmellirostris, f. LAMELLA + L. rostr-um beak + -AL.] A. adj. Belonging to the Lamellirostres, the fourth family of Cuvier’s sixth order (Palmipedes) of birds, so called as having lamellose bills. B. sb. A lamellirostral bird.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 277/2. The lamellirostral Palmipedes. Ibid. (1839–47), III. 387/1. The flat and sensitive bill of a lamellirostral bird.
1842. Brande, Dict. Sci., etc., Lamellirostrals, Lamellirostres, a tribe of swimming birds … comprehending those in which the margin of the beaks are furnished with numerous lamellæ or dental plates, arranged in a regular series, as in the swan, goose, and duck.
Also Lamellirostrate a. = prec. adj. (Mayne, Expos. Lex., 1855); Lamelliroster = prec. sb. (Cent. Dict.).
