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A variety of blue slate.

has a large bill, broadest towards the tip. The male is handsomely variegated with green, blue, brown, black, and white on the body; the head and neck are dark green. Called also broadbill, spoonbill, shovelbill, and maiden duck. The Australian shoveler, or shovel-nosed duck (S. rhynchotis), is a similar species.…

A pale blue flame, at the top of a candle flame, indicating the presence of fire damp. Raymond. Show bill, a broad sheet containing an advertisement in large letters. -- Show box, a box xontaining some object of curiosity carried round as a show. -- Show card, an advertising placard; also, a card for displaying sampl…

An indigo-blue variety of quartz.

. Busby. Skip kennel, a lackey; a footboy. [Slang.] Swift. -- Skip mackerel. (Zoöl.) See Bluefish, 1.

A name given to several kinds of a fish, as the common bluefish, the alewife, the bonito, the butterfish, the cutlass fish, the jurel, the leather jacket, the runner, the saurel, the saury, the threadfish, etc.

The apparent arch, or vault, of heaven, which in a clear day is of a blue color; the heavens; the firmament; -- sometimes in the plural. The Norweyan banners flout the sky. Shak.

A deep blue pigment or coloring material used in various arts. It is a vitreous substance made of cobalt, potash, and calcined quartz fused, and reduced to a powder.

smiles not. Shak. She led to see the doughty hero slain. Pope. When last I saw thy young blue eyes, they smiled. Byron.

A West Indian herb (Ruellia tuberosa) with curiously shaped blue flowers.

e wings black and legs and bill red. Called also white brant, wavey, and Texas goose. The blue, or blue-winged, snow goose (C. coerulescens) is varied with grayish brown and bluish gray, with the wing quills black and the head and upper part of the neck white. Called also white head, white-headed goose, and bald brant.…

locks in winter time, especially J. hyemalis in the Eastern United States; -- called also blue snowbird. See Junco.

A mineral of a white to blue or gray color, occuring commonly in dodecahedrons, also massive. It is a silicate of alumina and soda with some chlorine.

d etheostomoid fish (Etheostoma coeruleum) found in the Mississippi River; -- called also blue darter, and rainbow darter. -- Soldier fly (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of small dipterous flies of the genus Stratyomys and allied genera. They are often bright green, with a metallic luster, and are ornamented on t…

, etc. It was especially used in the case of the gangue minerals of a metalliferous vein. Blue spar, Cube spar, etc. See under Blue, Cube, etc.

; as, specks of dust; he has not a speck of money. Many bright specks bubble up along the blue Egean. Landor.

Any plant of the genus Veronica, mostly low herbs with pale blue corollas, which quickly fall off.

American endogenous plant (Tradescantia Virginica), with long linear leaves and ephemeral blue flowers. The name is sometimes extended to other species of the same genus.

A mineral occuring in octahedrons of great hardness and various colors, as red, green, blue, brown, and black, the red variety being the gem spinel ruby. It consist essentially of alumina and magnesia, but commonly contains iron and sometimes also chromium.

a læta) which appears in spring. The hind wings of the male are brown, bordered with deep blue; those of the female are mostly blue. -- Spring bed, a mattress, under bed, or bed bottom, in which springs, as of metal, are employed to give the required elasticity. -- Spring beetle (Zoöl.), a snapping beetle; an elater.…