a. [f. L. fuscus dark, dusky + -OUS.] Of a dark or somber hue; dusky, swarthy. (Chiefly Nat. Hist.)
1662. Ray, Itin., in Rem. (1760), 247. The 5 or 6 first Feathers of the Wing above of a dark or fuscous Colour, near Black.
1671. J. Webster, Metallogr., xvi. 235. Æs, or Copper (which was so called from the Isle of Cyprus, where it was first gotten in great plenty) is a metallick body, participating of a fuscous or darkish redness, being ignible, and fusible, and is as the mean betwixt Gold and Silver.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., II. xvi. Sad and fuscous colours, as black, or brown, or deep purple.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. 282. Fuscous, a dull brown.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 210. C Raulinsii, Leach. Back fuscous brown, with four lines of white spots; belly and legs reddish.
1848. J. Gould, Birds Austral., Descr. pl. 44. Ptilotis fusca, Fuscous Honey-eater.
1853. De Quincey, Wks. (1862), XIV. 390. The other sad, fuscous, begrimed with the snuff of ages.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 57. Seeds fuscous acutely tubercled.
fig. 1855. De Quincey, Lett., 31 July, in H. A. Page, Life (1877), II. xviii. 106. Some confused remembrance I had that we were or ought to be in a relation of hostility, though why I could ground upon none but fuscous and cloudy reasons.
