Dictionary

lyre-tailed en · ADJ

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) Of birds, having ornamental tail feathers that resemble the curved arms of a lyre.
   • Thousands of crows, rather smaller than our rook, keep up a constant cawing in these plantations; the curious wood-swallows (Artami), which closely resemble swallows in their habits and flight but differ much in form and structure, twitter from the tree-tops; while a lyre-tailed drongo-shrike, with brilliant black plumage and milk-white eyes, continually deceives the naturalist by the variety of its unmelodious notes. 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 338:

Deriveds

lyre-tailed nightjar · lyre-tailed honeyguide