a. and sb.
† A. adj. = forked-tail(ed. Obs.
1611. Florio, Follo, an eare-wig … or fork-taile vermine.
B. sb.
1. (See quot. 1753).
1753. Chambers, Supp., Forktail … a name given to the salmon, while in the fourth years growth.
1818. in Todd.
1861. Act 24 & 25 Vict., c. 109 § 4. Salmon … known by the names … blue pole, fork tail … or by any other local name.
2. (See quot. 1893).
1893. Newton, Dict. Birds, Forktail, of old time used in England for the Kite, but now applied in India to the birds of the genus Henicurus.
Hence Fork-tailed a., having a forked tail; used in the names of birds, etc. (cf. forked-tailed).
1694. J. Ray, in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 200. Your opinion or conjecture upon the Rabihorcado’s being a kind of fork-tail’d Larus Sea-swallow, I very much approve, and agree with you in.
1828. Sir J. S. Sebright, Observations on Hawking, 44. The fork-tailed kites were much flown, some years ago, by the Earl of Orford.
1868. Wood, Homes without H., v. 103. The Fork-tailed Date Shell (Lithodomus caudigera), is able to bore into substances which the pholas cannot penetrate.
