long-tailn.adj.

1564 W. Bullein Dialogue against Fever Pestilence f. 60 You can make a stoned horse a geldyng, and a long taile a curtall.

1691 R. Ames Lawyerus Bootatus & Spurratus 12 The numerous company that Ride On Long-tails, Bob-tails, Trotters, Pacers, Pads, Higlers, Hawkers, Hunters, Racers.

1774 R. Cumberland Note of Hand sig. A2 Long-tail and bob-tail, blacks and sprightly bays, And filthy duns and old flea-bitten greys.

1840 Sportsman 3 84 The Earl of Harborough can give the young Jehus a hint touching the stamp of horse befitting the occasion. He always drove a good sort himself, and eschewed the longtails.

1853 ‘H. Hieover’ Sporting Facts & Sporting Fancies 149 In using the term long tails..I meant the term as allusive to thorough, or at least very high bred horses.

1900 Westm. Gaz. 20 June 4/2 The farmer wants to sell his horse as a ‘long-tail’, and the military authorities would prefer not to receive it till it is five or six.

1929 A. B. Gilfillan Sheep: Life on S. Dakota Range (1993) ix. 139 The prejudice of buyers and feeders against long-tails is so strong that..the owners have to take twenty-five cents a head less for them than for the others.

2009 F. Lynghaug Official Horse Breeds Standards Guide 595/2 The Hackney Harness Pony (or Long Tail) must measure 12.2 hands or under at the withers. It is shown with a long mane and undocked tail.

1576 U. Fulwell Ars Adulandi v. f. 23 Yea, euen their verie dogs, Rug, Rig, & Risbie: yea, cut & longtaile, they shalbe welcome.

1842 Sportsman 6 40 On the Tuesday, I made the fourth of a coursing party; and as the white frost..on that morning took a trip to some other region, plenty of sport was afforded without incurring injury to the feet of the longtails.

1859 ‘Stonehenge’ Dog in Health & Dis. ii. ii. 208 As most of these points require only care..they ought to be carried out almost as strictly in the kennels of the foxhound and pointer as in those devoted to the longtails.

1876 Coursing Cal. 12 The former Duke of Hamilton..and others of their day, were followers of the ‘long tails’ on the very same ground.

1927 Daily Express 25 May 12 A little more foresight..might have made ‘rag running’ a very popular entertainment, commanding as much notice as the sport of long-tail racing.

1930 R. V. Billis & A. S. Kenyon Pastures New vi. 102 Some high-priced coursing dogs,—longtails as they were called—were brought into the colony.

1942 H. H. Peck Mem. Stockman ii. 186 The father [was] snow white..and a keen follower of ‘the long tails’ when coursing was in the open.

2003 Greyhound Star Feb. 49/3 Dan is looking forward to a lifetime of fun with the dogs and another ‘longtail’ is foremost in his plans.

?1578 W. Patten Let. Entertainm. Killingwoorth 31 After the Brydegroom had made hiz coors, ran the rest of the band, a whyle in sum order, but soon after, tag & rag, cut & long tayl.

1662 A. Brome Rump (new ed.) ii. 126 But long-tail and bob-tail can never agree.

1687 J. Phillips tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote 25 But for all the rest, Long-tail and Bob-tail, without any farther search, let them all go to the Stake.

1594 in A. H. Smith et al. Papers N. Bacon of Stiffkey (1990) III. 285 Shee aunswered that thei left Kentishmen with longe tayles who should keepe Mr Holland from caryeng the tithes.]

1612 W. Fennor Cornu-copiæ 45 Long time those long-tailes did remaine in Kent, Ashamed of themselues.

1628 Mad Pranks Robin Goodfellow (Percy Soc.) 4 They ever after were called Kentish Long-tayles.

1628 Mad Pranks Robin Goodfellow (Percy Soc.) 5 Truly, sir, sayd my hoastesse, I thinke we are called Long-tayles, by reason our tales are long, that we use to passe the time withall, and make our selves merry.

1659 J. Howell Prov. Eng. Toung 21/2 in Lex. Tetraglotton (1660) Essex Calfs, Kentish Long-tails, Yorkshire Tikes.

a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Kent 63 Kentish Long-Tailes... It happened in an English Village where Saint Austin was preaching, that the Pagans therein did beat and abuse both him and his associats, opprobriously tying Fish-tails to their back-side. In revenge whereof an impudent Author relateth..how such Appendants grew to the hind-parts of all that Generation.

1701 T. Brown Advice to Kentish-Long-Tails in Duke of Buckingham Wks. (1705) II. ii. 104 We, the Long Heads of Gotham,..To the Long-Tails of Kent, by these Presents send Greeting.

1834 Canterbury Mag. July 10 (heading) Kentish Long-Tails.

1883 G. Massey Nat. Genesis II. ix. 9 The men of Kent were called the long tails.

1985 J. Westwood Albion iii. 99 Even now the inhabitants of Strood are sometimes called ‘Kentish long-tails’.

1822 Asiatic Jrnl. & Monthly Reg. July 2/1 In this contest of the thick tails against the long tails..the numerical force of the latter party gave them such advantages, that the Jacks were in a fair way of being finished.

1844 G. Mogridge Points & Pickings about China & Chinese viii. 112 If a stranger manifested a little curiosity..venturing among the long-tails, he was tolerably sure to get hustled.

1860 F. C. Armstrong Lion of War v. 41 We shall go and join the ships in the Canton river. Hostilities have commenced with the long tails.

1889 South Riverside (Calif.) Bee 27 Sept. 10,000 of the long tails taken from the coast would help the cause, and the question of Chinese exclusion would be settled forever.

1708 tr. F. Leguat New Voy. E.-Indies 10 We caught Fools, Frigates, Long-tails, and other Birds.

1823 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 631/2 Thoracici, with the ventral fins situated below the pectoral; containing the Bull-heads, Scorpions, Gurnards,..Stickle-backs, Long-tails, [etc.].

1853 Home Friend 3 135 It is an oval or bottle-shaped dome..so abundantly lined with feathers that the young longtails [i.e. long-tailed tits] repose on a downy bed.

1858 Zoologist 16 6229 The longtails (or Priniæ).

1919 J. Masefield Reynard the Fox ii, in Poems (1946) 93 On the wind-bare thorn some longtails prinking Cried sweet as though wind-blown glass were chinking.

1939 D. A. Bannerman Birds Trop. W. Afr. V. 220 (heading) The Sudan Prinia or Longtail. Prinia superciliosa superciliosa.

1951 A. B. Klots Field Guide Butterflies 209 Skippers... White Striped Long Tail, Chioides albofasciatus.

1989 C. M. King Nat. Hist. Weasels & Stoats i. 16 Although the stoat and the longtail look and behave alike, they cannot be closely related; the one evolved in Eurasia and the other in North America.

1999 P. A. Opfer & A. B. Wright Field Guide Western Butterflies (ed. 2) 379 Dorantes Longtail lacks green scaling on the upper wing surfaces and has shorter tails.

2010 K. Blanksby et al. Fishing Guide Western Austral. (rev. ed.) ii. 35/2 Although they don't reach the same bragging size of the yellowfin [tuna], a big longtail can exceed 30 kilograms.

1837 W. Swainson On Nat. Hist. & Classif. Birds II. 189 Heralda, or the long-tails.

1958 D. A. Bannerman Birds Brit. Isles VII. 141 A number of immature long-tails may be seen in the Channel from November onwards.

2004 Nat. New Eng. Winter 38/1 Female long-tails are similarly, but more dully, patterned.

1849 Sharpe's London Jrnl. 10 359/2 Ve'll see hif ve can knock hover another brace o' longtails.

1888 P. W. Barlow Kaipara 192 With a couple of good dogs and a ‘white man’ (as a good fellow is called out here) for a companion, what more enjoyable than a day after the long tails.

1902 F. Mason Ann. Horse-shoe Club 84 We've determined to go poaching to-night, when everybody's in bed, and try and bag a few longtails.

1980 R. Page Jrnl. Country Parish 116 Snails are known as odny-dods, pheasants as longtails, foxes are Charlies or Reynards, [etc.].

2002 K. Todd Tinkering with Eden ii. vii. 97 The hunters pursued the cocks through the underbrush, [and] the longtails flew out over the fields.

1859 J. M. Jones Naturalist in Bermuda 88 The Phaëton Æthereus, commonly known by the name of ‘boatswain’, ‘longtail’, or ‘tropic bird’, is a summer resident in those islands.

1892 W. E. Meyer Wrecked on Bermudas xv. 125 A half dozen Longtails' eggs were also collected from as many holes in the rocks.

1958 Jet 11 Dec. 39 Islanders named visiting glamor girls longtails after a beautiful long-tailed bird which arrives in the spring and departs in the fall.

2004 Wildlife Conservation Feb. 33/3 Locally called longtails for their streaming tail feathers, tropicbirds are the hallmark of a Bermudian summer.