fire-tailedadj.

1800 M. L. Weems Hist. Life G. Washington (ed. 2) 15 Cannon-balls and fire-tailed bombs, like Comets, fell upon it thick as hail.

1873 Northern Echo 28 Oct. 3/3 The Ashantees, brave against ordinary weapons, stopped in dismay when these hissing fire-tailed messengers of death burst in thunder amid their ranks.

1946 F. F. van de Water Lake Champlain & Lake George xix. 268 His batteries were pouring solid shot, bombshells and roaring, fire-tailed rockets in upon Macomb's fort.

2012 G. Wells Kicking Hornet's Nest 83 He sees what looks like a flight of fire-tailed meteors arcing away.

1832 Proc. Comm. Sci. & Corr. Zool. Soc. London 2 xv.7 Its long and luminous green tail, in the form of which and in the arrangement of its feathers it approaches the fire-tailed Humming-Bird.

1864 J. G. Wood Our Garden Friends & Foes xviii. 292 The most common species is the Fire-tailed Cuckoo-fly.

1906 F. Finn Garden & Aviary Birds of India v. 114 The Firetailed Red Honey-sucker (Aethopyga ignicauda), a very beautiful species..ranges as high as 11,000 feet.

1932 Geogr. Jrnl. 80 480 There are two birds of striking colour, the beautiful little Fire-tailed Mixornis..and Hodgson's Grandala.

c1996 C. Crowe Jerry Maguire (film script) 37 (stage direct.) He begins dipping into the tank, grabbing the one exotic fish that failed to escape his cup. It's a fire-tailed Peruvian beauty.

2013 S. Pritchard-Jones & B. Gibbons Annapurna 22/2 Smart sunbirds found in flowering trees include the..fire-tailed and purple sunbird.

1845 J. Gould Birds Austral. (1848) III. Pl. 78 Estrelda bella. Fire-tailed Finch..Fire-tail, Colonists of Van Diemen's Land.

1904 Emu 3 216 Found a Fire-tailed Finch's..nest just begun in a prickly box.

1980 M. Dugan Early Dreaming 42 I was given special dispensation for access..to out-of-bounds bush areas to note the daily progress of a fire-tailed finch's nest.