Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having a brushy tongue: specifically applied to parrots of the group Trichoglossinæ.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I also continued to obtain a few new birds, among which were two or three kinds of small hawks and falcons, a beautiful brush-tongued paroquet, Trichoglossus ornatus, and a rare black and white crow, Corvus advena.

    The Malay Archipelago 2004

  • It was a variety of the Charmosyna placentis, one of the smallest and most elegant of the brush-tongued lories.

    The Malay Archipelago 2004

  • The most remarkable were the fine crimson lory, Eos rubra — a brush-tongued parroquet of

    The Malay Archipelago 2004

  • It has no woodpeckers and no pheasants — families which exist in every other part of the world; but instead of them it has the mound-making brush-turkeys, the honeysuckers, the cockatoos, and the brush-tongued lories, which are found nowhere else upon the globe.

    The Malay Archipelago 2004

  • But there is another large group of parrots, the _Loriidae_ or brush-tongued parrots, some of the most interesting and brightly coloured of the tribe, which, when wild, subsist principally upon the pollen and nectar of flowers, notably the various species of _Eucalyptus_, the filamented tongues of these parrots being peculiarly adapted for obtaining this.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" Various

  • And the brush-tongued lories, that search for nectar among the bells of Malayan blossoms, are the brightest-coloured of all the parrot tribes.

    Science in Arcady Grant Allen 1873

  • A very peculiar and exceptional offshoot of the parrot group is the brush-tongued lory, several species of which are common in Australia,

    Science in Arcady Grant Allen 1873

  • The prevalence of very large and brilliantly coloured flowers in the Malayan region must be set down for the most part to the selective action of these æsthetic and colour-loving little brush-tongued parrots.

    Science in Arcady Grant Allen 1873

  • It has no woodpeckers and no pheasants -- families which exist in every other part of the world; but instead of them it has the mound-making brush-turkeys, the honeysuckers, the cockatoos, and the brush-tongued lories, which are found nowhere else upon the globe.

    The Malay Archipelago, the land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise; a narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature — Volume 1 Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

  • The most remarkable were the fine crimson lory, Eos rubra -- a brush-tongued parroquet of a vivid crimson colour, which was very abundant.

    The Malay Archipelago, the land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise; a narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature — Volume 1 Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

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