I'm afraid I'm "gill"ty of not being able to completely answer your question, however, I did come up with some not altogether useless tit-bits.

The term gills can among other things mean:

2. Applied to various organs, etc. resembling the gills of a fish. a. The wattles or dewlap of a fowl.

I was surprised by how long the definition of gill was. Now as you will see below, it seems there was reference to every colour but green!

3. Attributed to persons: †a. with jocular allusion to the capture or holding of a fish by the gills.
1589 Pappe w. Hatchet 3 Martin beware your gilles, for Ile make you daunce at the poles end. 1599 Minsheu Span. Dial. (1623) 67/2 He throwes againe the dice, and he drew vp all, and so he left me hanging on the gill [marg. as a fish], without a farthing. a1616 Beaum. & Fl. Wit at Sev. Weap. ii. ii, And when thou hast him by the amorous gills, Think on my vengeance.

b. with allusion to sense 2a: The flesh under the jaws and ears; esp. in phrases to be rosy about the gills, to look in good health; to be white, blue, yellow about the gills, to look dejected or in ill health; to turn red in the gills, to show signs of anger or indignation.
1626 Bacon Sylva §872 Anger+maketh both the Cheekes and the Gills Red. 1632 B. Jonson Magn. Lady i. i, He+draws all the parish wills, designs the legacies, and strokes the gills Of the chief mourners. 1681 Dryden Span. Friar ii. ii, He says he's but a friar, but he's big enough to be a pope; his gills are as rosy as a turkey-cock. 1798 C. Smith Young Philos. III. 274 ‘My dear Sir!’ replied Sir Appulby, in visible confusion, his fat gills quivering, and his swollen eye-lids twinkling [etc.]. 1812 Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 102 [He] grew white about the gills. 1816 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Wks. I. 8 Whether you look all rosy round the gills, Or hatchet-fac'd like starving cats so lean. 1842 C. Whitehead R. Savage (1845) II. viii. 277 You won't run away with her, I hope, and leave my old gills to be cuffed, will you? 1855 Thackeray Newcomes II. 58 He looks a little yellow about the gills. 1893 ‘Q.’ [Couch] Delect. Duchy 168 He+looked very yellow in the gills, though clearly convalescent. 1894 Du Maurier Trilby (1895) 236 How red and coarse their ears and gills and cheeks grew, as they fed!