310 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



of a few of the volcanic peaks in Costa Kica and Veragua, and is known 

 as the Irazu Humming Bird (Panterpe insignis}. In this the crown is 

 rich metallic blue; the upper parts bronzy green, changing to blue on 

 the upper tail coverts; the breast is also blue, but the whole chest and 

 throat are of the most glowing hues, commencing with golden green 

 exteriorly and passing through golden yellow into orange and finally 

 culminating in scarlet in the center. 



The Puff-legs (genus Eriocnemis) are beautiful Humming Birds of 

 medium size, which have the legs clothed with the daintiest muffs or 

 puffs imaginable of cottony or downy feathers, white, buff, brown, or 

 black, according to the species. Perhaps the finest of them is the 

 Glowing Puff-leg (E. vestila), whose upper tail coverts are of a dazzling 

 brilliancy unsurpassed and seldom, if ever, equaled by any other ob- 

 ject in nature. Mr. John Gould, the celebrated author of that most 

 magnificent of all bird books, the Monograph of the Trochilida3, says : 



Everyone who, for the first time, finds himself in front of the compartment of my 

 collection iii which this species is placed, gives utterance to some exclamation ex- 

 pressive of the admiration excited by its striking beauty and glowworm-like splen- 

 dor of its upper tail coverts. This brilliancy is more apparent at certain hours of the 

 day ; for instance, it is more beautiful in the evening after sunset than at midday, 

 the brilliancy being relieved by the dark hue of the tail feathers. It is unquestion- 

 ably one of the finest species of the genus, and one of the most resplendent of the 

 Trochilidce; would that it were possible for me to even faintly depict it! But no, the 

 most finished drawing can be but a phantom of the original, and it is only by an exami- 

 nation of the specimen that my readers can form any adequate idea of the splendor 

 and beauty of this gem ; and how much more gorgeous must the bird appear in its 

 native wilds. 



These are the mountain valleys of Colombia. 



Even more beautiful, in the writer's opinion, is a gloriously-colored 

 Humming Bird found in eastern Ecuador, the Panoplites jardinii ; for, 

 while the gorgeous coloring of the Glowing Puff-leg is mainly confined 

 to a limited area, that of Jardine's Humming Bird embraces its entire 

 body. The crown and lower parts are richest metallic violet-blue; the 

 sides of the breast, the back, and the rump, bluish emerald-green ; and 

 the wing coverts golden green. It is the excessive refulgence of the 

 two shades of green, however, which gives the plumage of this bird 

 such a splendid brilliancy, for, in certain lights, they glow with more 

 than metallic clearness, while the deep, velvety black of the nape and 

 the snowy white of the tail feathers heightens the effect by their strik- 

 ing contrast. **The accompanying plate," says Mr. Gould, " is in- 

 tended to represent one of the most beautiful of the Trochilidcc yet dis- 

 covered. I say intended, for whatever success may have attended my 

 attempts to convey an idea of the beauty of these living gems, I must 

 confess that the means at my command are utterly inadequate to do 

 justice to the present species, whose crown, back, shoulders, and chest 

 sides are clothed with hues of metallic blue and green of such resplend- 

 ant brilliancy that it is quite impossible to represent them on paper." 



