The poet's tomb was disappointing in its unlovely simplicity, its stern, slatey hue.

It was of a dull, slatey colour, and belonged to the silkworm family of Bombycidae.

There was only slatey void, through which he was going on for ever.

In the adult the brown of the upper plumage assumes a slatey grey hue, and the edgings of lighter colour vanish.