In literature, metallic green is frequently used to evoke a sense of iridescence and otherworldly brilliance in natural settings. Many authors employ this color to depict the dazzling quality of bird plumage—from the dark, flashing accents mixed with hints of red [1] to crowns that surpass human artistry in beauty [2]—while others describe entire wings and bodies shimmering in varying intensities [3, 4, 5]. Beyond birds, metallic green appears in descriptions of insects with luminous exoskeletons [6] or even as an effect in non-living materials, such as the rich glaze on baked clay [7]. Often juxtaposed with contrasting tones like copper, purple, or even black, this hue imbues its subjects with a dynamic visual texture, emphasizing both their natural allure and almost mechanical precision in color saturation [8, 9]. Overall, metallic green functions as a vivid symbol of splendor and complexity, underscoring the beauty and uniqueness of the natural world as rendered in literary imagery.
- It has splendid plumage, of a dark, flashing, metallic green, with touches of red, and a white breast.
— from Brighter Britain! (Volume 2 of 2)
or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand by W. Delisle (William Delisle) Hay
- On the top of the head is a patch of brilliant shining metallic green, which exceeds in beauty any crown devised by man.
— from Glimpses of Indian Birds by Douglas Dewar
- Its plumage both above and below was a dark metallic green, with blue iridescence on the neck and purple on the shoulders.
— from Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation by William T. (William Temple) Hornaday
- Young (left) 309 The upper parts are of a beautiful metallic green, the crown of the head and crest being almost black.
— from Birds of Britain by J. Lewis (John Lewis) Bonhote
- His forehead and crown are metallic green.
— from Birds of the Indian Hills by Douglas Dewar
- These are large insects of metallic green colours, and armed with enormous serrated mandibles.
— from The Geographical Distribution of Animals, Volume 2
With a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's surface by Alfred Russel Wallace
- The clay of which it is baked is local and dark brown in color; a white earth applied to this, on baking, gives rise to a rich metallic green glaze.
— from In Indian Mexico (1908) by Frederick Starr
- Among the handsomest was Carpophaga rufiventris , a bird with the breast cinnamon and the wings and back metallic green, copper and purple.
— from Pygmies & Papuans: The Stone Age To-day in Dutch New Guinea by A. F. R. (Alexander Frederick Richmond) Wollaston
- On either side of the neck projected a snow-white plume, tipped with the most resplendent metallic green.
— from On the Banks of the Amazon by William Henry Giles Kingston