308 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME OF THE MORE BRILLIANTLY COLORED 



KINDS. 



Among the half-thousand species of Humming Birds, the diversity of 

 plumage as well as form is very great. It will not be practicable, there- 

 fore, to do more in the way of describing particular kinds than to select 

 those which are most conspicuous in this respect. Before proceeding to 

 do so, it may be well to explain that in a large majority of cases orna- 

 mentation is confined to the males alone, the females being as a rule de- 

 void of the refulgent hues and ornamental plumes, and therefore much 

 more like one another than those of the opposite sex. Occasionally, 

 however, as in the genera Petasophora, Eupetomena, Panoplites, Aglceactis, 

 Lampropygia, and a few others, the sexes are alike in color, or at least 

 not essentially different. In only one species, the Mango Humming 

 Bird (Lampornis mango), of Jamaica, is the female more beautiful than 

 the male, having, in addition to the colors possessed by the latter, a 

 brightly colored throat-patch. As a rather remarkable coincidence, it 

 may be mentioned that the largest and smallest species of the family, 

 Patagona gigas and Mellisuga minima, are among the most plainly colored 

 of all, with little difference between the sexes. 



Perhaps the most remarkable of Humming Birds, though more dis- 

 tinguished for the extraordinary development of its tail feathers than 

 for brilliancy of plumage, is the Marvellous Humming Bird (Loddigesia 

 mirabilis), of Peru. An idea of the form of the tail in this elegant bird 

 may be obtained from the outline figures on Plate xxm. Its coloration 

 while not conspicuous for brilliancy in such a brilliant coterie, is never- 

 theless very pretty: Crown azure-blue, back golden green, tail violet- 

 black, and lower parts pure white, with a gorget of emerald- green bor- 

 dered on each side by a line of coppery red. 



The Topaz-throated or King Humming Birds (genus Topaza) are 

 among the largest of the family and are further conspicuous for their 

 elegant form and brilliant plumage. There are two species, the Crim- 

 son Topaz (T.pella), of Guiana and the Lower Amazons, and the Fiery 

 Topaz (T. pyra) of the northern tributaries of the great South American 

 river. The former is much the better known and is a truly magnifi- 

 cent bird, some 8 J inches in total length, although some 3 inches of 

 this are taken up by the lengthened caliper-like tips of the second pair 

 of tail feathers. The general color is a brilliant metallic crimson, the 

 whole throat of the most glittering, burnished golden-yellow or topaz, 

 changing to emerald-green, encircled by velvety black, which covers 

 also the sides and top of the head. 



The Fire-tailed or Comet Humming Birds (genus Sappho) also include 

 two species, belonging to Peru, Bolivia, and the Argentine Kepublic. 

 " The tails of the males blaze with the radiance of flashes of flame, 

 and their ruby backs, luminous green throats, and under surface pre- 

 sent a tout ensemble unparalleled in the range of ornithology," * while Mr. 



* D. G. Elliot, in Standard Natural History, Birds, p. 446. 



