brown bill

CIDE DICTIONARY

brown bill,  [Brown + bill cutting tool.].

 A bill or halberd of the 16th and 17th centuries. See 4th Bill.  [1913 Webster]
" The black, or as it is sometimes called, the brown bill, was a kind of halberd, the cutting part hooked like a woodman's bill, from the back of which projected a spike, and another from the head."  Grose.  [1913 Webster]
"Many time, but for a sallet, my brainpan had been cleft with a brown bill."  [1913 Webster]