354- CARBUNCLE HUMMING-BIRD. 



the bill, both above and below, furnished with 

 feathers to the middle : the top of the head, and 

 nedk, are of a deep, dull red : the throat, fore part 

 of the neck, and breast are of the colour of a deep 

 ruby or carbuncle : the rest of the body velvet- 

 black : the wings brown, and the tail of a deep 

 gilded rufous colour." It is said to have been sent 

 from Cayenne, where it is very rare. 



Monsr. Audebert, or rather Monsr. Viellot, in 

 his work on the Humming-Birds, considers this as 

 a variety only of the Trochilus moschitus, differing 

 merely in being somewhat less brilliant in colour, 

 which circumstance, he supposes, may have arisen 

 from its having been fumigated with sulphur*. 

 In Monsr. Sonnini's edition of Buffon however we 

 are informed that though Monsr. Viellot, in the 

 work above-mentioned, considered this species as 

 a mere variety of the moschitus, yet he has since 

 retracted that opinion, in consequence of having 

 received some specimens from Cayenne which ex- 

 actly accorded with Buffon's description and spe- 

 cimen. He therefore allows it to be a distinct 

 species from J 7 . moschitus, though greatly allied to 

 that bird. 



* This pernicious practice, according to Monsr. Levaillant and 

 other French naturalists, appears to have done considerable in- 

 jury to many specimens iu the Royal Museum, and is now happily 

 exploded. 



