a. Zool. [f. L. strūthio ostrich (in mod.L. as generic name), a. Gr. στρουθίων.] Related to or resembling the ostrich.
1773. Pennant, Genera of Birds, 38. Order VI. Struthious. Ibid. Struthious is a new coined word to express this order; for these birds could not be used to any of the Linnaean divisions.
1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 271/1. The Struthious birds and Penguins, which cannot fly.
1841. R. E. Grant, Outl. Comp. Anat., 497. The two anterior branches … are … very small in strutheous [sic] birds.
1875. A. Newton, in Encycl. Brit., III. 729/2. A large Bird, combining Dinornithic and Struthious characters.
1883. E. B. Biggar, in Century Mag., Jan., 415/2. If the pursued were acquainted with struthious tactics, he would lie down flat on the ground, where the bird finds it impossible to strike him.
