Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GAL-LI-NA'CEOUS, a. [L. gallinaceus, from gallina, a hen, gallus, a cock, whose name is from crowing, W. galw, Eng. to call.]

Designating that order of fowls called Gallinæ, including the domestic fowls or those of the pheasant kind. Gallinaceous Lapis, a glossy substance produced by volcanic fires; the lapis obsidianus of the ancients. A kind of it brought from Peru is of a beautiful black, or crow-color, like the gallinaço. – Encyc.