606 



APPENDIX. 



General Hist. iv. p. 350. Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 177. Le Sasin, 

 ViEiLL. Ois. dor. pi. 61. and 62. Humming-Bird, Cook's Third 

 Voyage, ii. p. 297.) 



Sp, Charact. — Cinnamon-rufous ; tail cuneate, the lateral feathers 

 of the throat elongated. — Male, with a metalloidal crimson and 

 cupreous throat. The female golden-green, with the throat des- 

 titute of the glowing spot. 



The discovery of this splendid species, in the cold and 

 dreary regions of Nootka Sound, is due to the celebrated 

 navigator Captain Cook. Its range is even more extensive 

 on the western, and through the central parts of America, 

 than the common species. Kotzebue found it in summer on 

 the Pacific coast, as high as the 61st parallel of northern 

 latitude, and Mr. Swainson has seen specimens from the 

 table-land of Mexico, near Real del Monte ; so that our 

 little western wanderer, no less adventurous than the Ruby- 

 throat, traverses the whole continent, from the equator, pro- 

 bably to the utmost verge of flowering vegetation, on the 

 borders of the Arctic circle. 



According to Mr. Swainson, the total length of a specimen in his 

 possession is 2 inches 10 lines ; the wing 1 inch 7 lines ; tail from 

 the vent 1 inch ; the bill above 7 lines and one fifth, measured from 

 the rictus 8 inches 2 fifths. The general tint of the upper plumage, 

 rufous or cinnamon. The crown and wing-coverts only, have, how- 

 ever a strong coppery-greenish gloss. The quills, and middle of the 

 tail feathers with their tips, pale dusky brown, slightly glossed with 

 violet. The chin and throat covered with scale-like feathers, of a 

 metallic fire-like color glossed with red ; the tints vary with the di- 

 rection of the light, and in all are exquisitely splendid. The middle 

 of the breast and vent nearly pure white ; the sides and under tail 

 covers the same color with the back. Legs and feet dark brown. — 

 The female chiefly differs in being golden-green, where the male is 

 cinnamon ; and the throat is merely spotted with the glowing ruby 

 color of the male. Is not this supposed female a young male ? as in 

 the common Ruby-Throat, the female has no particle of metallic 

 splendor on the throat, but in the young males spots of this kind 

 appear on the throat in the latest moult. 



