In literature, “fulvous” is employed as a richly evocative color term to capture the warm, tawny hues seen throughout nature. Descriptions of butterfly wings, for example, frequently note “bright fulvous” or “dull fulvous” tones—often contrasted with darker markings—to emphasize subtle variations in pattern and light [1, 2, 3]. In ornithological and animal accounts, the term appears in phrases like “glistening fulvous” on tail feathers or “orange-fulvous” on underwing areas, underscoring a delicate interaction between light and shade in plumage [4, 5, 6]. Moreover, “fulvous” extends beyond birds, describing the earthy tint of shells or even lending its name to species, as seen with animals such as the Fulvous Harvest Mouse and the Fulvous Tree-duck [7, 8, 9]. Through such varied usage, fulvous enriches descriptive prose by conveying both scientific precision and a poetic sense of natural warmth.
- Butterfly , ♂.—The wings on the upper side are bright fulvous; the black markings are slight.
— from The Butterfly Book
A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North America by W. J. (William Jacob) Holland
- Butterfly , ♂.—The upper side is deep reddish-fulvous, with [ 121] both wings somewhat obscured at the base by fuscous.
— from The Butterfly Book
A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North America by W. J. (William Jacob) Holland
- Butterfly , ♂.—The wings on the upper side are dull fulvous, greatly obscured by brown at the base of the wings.
— from The Butterfly Book
A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North America by W. J. (William Jacob) Holland
- Its upper parts are chocolate brown, save the feathers above the tail, which Oates describes as "glistening fulvous."
— from Birds of the Indian Hills by Douglas Dewar
- The fore wings on the under side are buff, with the basal area orange-fulvous.
— from The Butterfly Book
A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North America by W. J. (William Jacob) Holland
- In winter plumage the black and other markings overlaid by rusty and fulvous; beneath by whitish.
— from A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 1 of 3 by Robert Ridgway
- Shell ovate-oblong, chesnut, with a marginal fulvous band; spire somewhat lengthened, acute, the tip black.
— from Zoological Illustrations, Second Series, Volume 3
or, Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals by William Swainson
- Reithrodontomys fulvescens Fulvous Harvest Mouse
— from The Recent Mammals of Tamaulipas, México by Ticul Alvarez
- Fulvous Tree-duck.
— from Check-list of the Birds of Kansas by Harrison Bruce Tordoff