382 



ZOOLOGY— BIRDS. 



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feathers more tban twice as long as tlie middle i)air; upper i>arts bronzed hrifjlit gol'len 

 green, duller on the head; chin black, glossed with green; gorget bluish violet, with 

 purple retlections, below which is a crescentic patch of light buff; sides and abdomen, 

 save a band of white crossing its lower part ami a median line of dark gray, bronze- 

 green; under tail coverts greenish ; wings purplish-brown, their upper coverts bronzy, 

 green; tail purplish-black. Wing, 1.30; tail, 2.01'; bill, ().7r>. 



Fiinak. — Head, entire upper ])arts, ui)per wing coverts, and four middle tail 

 feathers light bronze-green; wings purplish-brown; under portions generally with 

 •strong rufous suftusion, fading on the chin aiid throat into a light bluish ash, darker 

 toward the sides; under tail coverts white; two outer tail feathers light rufous :it 

 base, tipped with white, and centrally nuuked with a band of black. Wing, 1.(m ; 

 tail, 1.2r>; bill, 0.00. 



Hab. — Guatemala; (?) Arizona (Uenshaw). 



The claim of this beautiful species to a place in our fjiuna rests upon the 

 capture of a single female near Camp Bowie, Ariz. Mr. Lawrence writes me 

 that hitherto it has never been known outside the limits of Guatemala, 

 where it is a common bird. I regret that I am unable to give any infoiTna- 

 tion respecting either its habits or relative abundance in Arizona. Probably 

 it is rare ; for here, as at certain other points in Southeastern Arizona, the 

 attention of the party was especially directed to the hummingbirds, the 

 occurrence of novelties being rendered more jjrobable by the abundance of 

 certain other species, and at Camp Bowie notably by the great numbers of 

 Trochilus alexandri. The well known agave jilants of this region were here 

 very abundant, and their tall, upright stems, surmounted by the short lateral 

 stems, with their spreading bunches of blossoms, dotted the rocky hillsides 

 in every direction, and gave a strange, weird aspect to the landscape. 

 Around these the hummingbirds congregated, showing an especial liking for 

 the nectar of the flowers, or possibly finding in them rich storehouses of the 

 minute forms of insect life, which is the chief part of their diet. By taking 

 a station near one of these, one could easily watch the motions of these 

 little feathered gems as they darted to and fro ; and had any other .species 

 been even tolerably numerous, it could scarcely have eluded our attention. 



