FAMILY TROCHILIDAE 377 



SELASPHORUS SCINTILLA (Gould): Scintillant Hummingbird, 

 Colibri Centelleante 



Trochilus (Sclasphorus) scintilla Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1850 (Febru- 

 ary 28, 1851), p. 162. (Volcan de Chiriqui, altitude 2750 meters, Chiriqui, 

 Panama.) 



Very small ; male, throat brilliant, shining red ; female, central 

 tail feathers mainly rufous brown. 



Description. — Length 67-77 mm. Adult male, crown to rump, 

 including lesser to greater wing coverts, bronze-green ; upper tail 

 coverts centrally like rump, edged with cinnamon-rufous; rectrices 

 cinnamon-rufous, with a shaft line of dull black; wings, including 

 primary coverts, dusky, with a rufescent sheen ; lores, side of head 

 and point of chin cinnamon-rufous ; gorget, covering throat with 

 elongated points along the neck on either side, brilliant orange-red; 

 lower foreneck, upper breast, and center of abdomen white; rest of 

 under surface cinnamon to buff, with sides spotted with metallic 

 green; under tail coverts cinnamon-rufous, edged with buff; under 

 wing coverts metallic green ; axillars cinnamon-rufous. 



Adult female, duller green than male on upper surface ; tail with 

 basal part cinnamon-rufous; central rectrices with a distal line of 

 metallic green, all with a subterminal band of black, and tip of 

 cinnamon-rufous; a dusky spot around eye; lores and line over eye 

 cinnamon-rufous; under surface white to deep buff, with the sides 

 cinnamon-rufous; throat and foreneck spotted or streaked with 

 dusky to dull green. 



Immature, like adult female, but in juvenile stage feathers of 

 upper surface margined with rusty. 



A male, taken March 8, 1965, at El Volcan, Chiriqui, had the 

 iris dark brown ; bill black, becoming fuscous on the base of the 

 mandibular rami ; tarsus and toes fuscous-black ; claws black. 



A female, collected March 1, 1965, at the same point, was similar 

 except that the bill was wholly black. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from Chiriqui), wing 32.4-35.5 (33.8), 

 tail 22.4-24.8 (23.6), culmen from base 11.5-12.9 (12.2) mm. 



Females (10 from Chiriqui), wing 36.2-38.8 (36.8), tail 21.7- 

 23.6 (22.6), culmen from base 13.0-15.1 (13.5) mm. 



Weight: 9 females 2.23 ±0.07 grams ; 3 males 2.1, 2.15, 2.75 grams. 

 (Hartman, Auk, 1954, p. 468). 



Resident. Common in the Subtropical Zone on the Pacific slope 

 of the great volcano of western Chiriqui from 1,250 to 1,900 meters, 

 ranging in lesser number to 2,500 and 3,000 meters; Cerro Pando. 



On the western side of Volcan Baru this species ranges over Cerro 

 Pando, and above Cerro Punta; on the east it is common from 



