FAMILY TROCHILIDAE 287 



these sabrewings sang interminably tsec tsee, tuc see, tu wit see" in 

 slow tempo and squeaky voice. At intervals the tail was spread in a 

 flash of white. The only nest seen, placed on a slender, horizontal 

 branch over a ravine "was a deep open cup covered with green moss 

 that draped gracefully all around it. It was so bulky that, until with a 

 mirror I saw the two white, elongated eggs, I surmised that it was 

 the nest of a small flycatcher." 



Two eggs in the collection of the British Museum (Natural 

 History) were collected by C. K. Underwood at Azahar de Cartago. 

 Costa Rica, July 3, 1895. They are dull white without gloss, long 

 elliptical in form, one being slightly more pointed at either end than 

 the other. They measure 17.3x11.8 and 16.8x11.6 mm. (These 

 measurements differ very slightly from those listed by Schonwetter, 

 Handb. Ool., pt. 11, 1966, p. 668). 



FLORISUGA MELLIVORA MELLIVORA (Linnaeus): White- 

 necked Jacobin, Colibri Nuquiblanco 



Figure 42 



Trochilus mellivorus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 121. (Surinam.) 



Medium size ; male, head and neck blue, back and breastband 

 green ; tail, abdomen, and band across hindneck white. 



Description. — Length 108-115 mm. Middle upper tail coverts 

 broadened and elongated so that they resemble rectrices and hide 

 the true middle pair. Adult male, head, neck, and chest deep blue ; 

 upper hindneck, back, wing coverts, and upper tail coverts metallic 

 green ; a broad white band across hindneck ; wings dusky, with a 

 violaceous sheen ; sides metallic green, in some individuals uniting to 

 form a band across the breast ; under wing coverts duller green ; 

 rest of under surface and tail pure white, the latter tipped with 

 dusky or black. 



Adult female, above metallic bronze-green, duller on the head ; 

 tail more or less bluish green, black at the end, tipped with white ; 

 wings as in male ; foreneck and upper breast feathers dusky centrally, 

 glossed with green, edged broadly with white; lower breast and 

 upper abdomen with more white ; lower abdomen usually white ; under 

 tail coverts blackish, with bluish or greenish sheen, tipped with white. 



Young male, in general like female, but changing rapidly to adult 

 dress. 



An adult male, taken near Puerto Armuelles, Chiriqui, February 18, 

 1966, had the iris deep reddish brown ; the entire bill, and the inside 



