ground-colour

The furniture is Louis XV, of the wonderful painted sort, the beautiful bed with its low head and foot boards exactly the same height, curving backward; the edges a waved line, the ground-colour a lovely pistache green, and the decoration gay old-fashioned garden flowers in every possible shade.

The Art of Interior Decoration Grace Wood

Of the harebells he made knots, the ground-colour of her eyes; but autumn loves the yellow, so she was stuck with gold like a princess.

The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay Maurice Hewlett 1892

Euploeine (Danainae), often with a steel-blue ground-colour, while the under surface is well concealed when the butterfly is at rest, -- thus there are two kinds of protective coloration each with a different meaning!

Evolution in Modern Thought Gustav Schwalbe 1880

If we compare, for instance, the many different imitators of _Danaida chrysippus_ we find that, with their brownish-yellow ground-colour, and the position and size, and more or less sharp limitation of their clear marginal spots, they have reached very different degrees of nearness to their model.

Evolution in Modern Thought Gustav Schwalbe 1880

The latter gains a green ground-colour which harmonises with the leaf, while the dark marking is chiefly confined to the back.

Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol. 1 and 3, of 3) An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and a Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions George John Romanes 1871

The shell is fine and fragile but entirely devoid of gloss; the ground-colour is white with a very faint pinky or lilac tinge, and they are thickly speckled all over with minute markings of two different shades -- the one a sort of purplish brown (they are so small that it is difficult to make certain of the exact colour), and the other inky purple or grey.

The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

The ground-colour is pink or pinky white, and they are very thickly speckled and spotted everywhere, but extremely densely so, and there blotched also in a broad irregular zone, round the large end with rich reddish maroon and dull greyish or inky purple -- the rich colour predominating in some eggs, the dull colour in others; and in some the markings being all extremely fine and speckly, while in others they are rather bolder.

The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

Although much smaller, and although the colour of the markings is very different, the ground-colour and the character of the markings much recall those of _Liothrix luteus_.

The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

The eggs of this species are very regular broad ovals, the shells fine but glossless, the ground-colour a dead white, thickly speckled and spotted about the large end, thinly elsewhere, with somewhat brownish and again purplish red.

The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

The ground-colour is greenish white; round the large end is a huge, smudgy, irregular zone of reddish brown and inky grey, the one colour predominating in the one egg, the other in the other.

The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870