a. and sb. Ornith. [a. F. uropygial: see UROPYGI-UM and -AL.]
1. adj. Situated on, belonging to, the rump or uropygium. Usu. uropygial gland.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 16. The crop and the uropygial gland are peculiar to, though not universally found in Birds.
1884. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 86. This is a two-lobed … gland, saddled upon the ‘pope’s nose,’ at the root of the tail, and hence sometimes called the uropygial or rump gland.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v., Uropygial feathers.
2. sb. A rump-feather.
1886. Newton, in Encycl. Brit., XX. 180/2. The middle feathers of the tail, ordinarily concealed … by the uropygials, are black.
