312 



PASSERES BIRDS. 



respresented in the female by a few specks of the same 

 colour. The tail, in both sexes, is composed of ex- 

 ceedingly short feathers, which in the male are black 

 and very narrow, so that when spread out they radiate 

 like spokes round the posterior extremity of the body. 

 Iii the female they are rather broader, and furnished 

 with large white tips. This character of the tail is met 

 with in other species of the genus Calothorax. The 

 Short-tailed Woodstar is an inhabitant of Peru. 



THE SWORD-BILL (Dotimastes ensiferus) is remark- 

 able for the great length of its bill, which is slightly 

 curved upwards, and is employed by the bird in pro- 

 curing its insect food from the enormously elongated 

 tubular flowers of the trumpet-flowers (Brugmansice). 

 The total length of the male is eight inches and three- 

 quarters, of which the bill measures four inches ; the 

 female is about two inches shorter than her partner, and 

 her bill only measures three inches in length. Its 

 general colour is bronzed green, but it is not a brilliant 

 species. This bird has been found in Bogota, Car- 

 accas, and Quito. In the latter country specimens have 

 been obtained at an elevation of eleven thousand to 

 twelve thousand feet above the sea. 



TEMMINCZ'S SAPPHIRE-WING (Pterophanes Tem- 

 minclcii} is one of the finest species of this family, mea- 

 suring fully six inches in length, whilst its plumage 

 displays all the brilliancy which we are accustomed to 

 associate with the idea of a Humming-bird. The male 

 is of a grass-green colour, exhibiting a strong metallic 

 lustre beneath ; the tail, which is notched or slightly 

 forked at the extremity, is of a glossy olive-green 

 colour, whilst the quill feathers of the wings are of a 

 shining deep blue, margined and tipped with black. The 

 bill, which is rather short, slender, and straight, is black. 

 The female resembles the male, but has the throat 

 brown. This beautiful bird is found principally on the 

 Cordillera of Columbia, where it dwells at a consider- 

 able elevation. 



GUERDTS HELMET-CREST (Oxypogon Guerinii), an 

 inhabitant of the higher regions of the Columbian 

 Andes, is remarkable for the singular crest with which 

 the head of the male is adorned. The colour of the 

 upper surface is bronzed green, with the tail feathers 

 coppery, striped with white down the centre ; the lower 

 surface is light olive-brown, with a bronzed tinge on 

 the flanks. The female is similar in these respects to 

 the male, but less brilliant in her colours. The male 

 is further distinguished by having a long, pointed crest 

 on the head, the head and crest being blackish -brown, 

 with a white line running up each side of the forehead, 

 uniting at the base of the crest, and passing up the 

 front of the latter in a single broad line. The sides of 

 the throat are also brownish-black, but the middle of 

 this part is occupied by a sort of pointed white beard, 

 balancing the crest on the top of the head, but exhibit- 

 ing a narrow band of the most brilliant green in the 

 centre. The bill is rather short, slender, and black. 

 The total length of the bird is about four inches and 

 a half. 



THE BLUE-TAILED SYLPH (Cynanthus cyanurus), 

 one of the most elegant species of this family, is an 

 inhabitant of the lower elevations of the Andes to the 

 north of the equator, in the countries of Ecuador, New 



Grenada, and Venezuela. The male measures about 

 nine inches in length, including the greatly-elongated 

 tail feathers with which he is adorned, and which of 

 themselves are nearly six inches long. These are the 

 outer feathers ; they are black at the base, and for the 

 remainder of their length exhibit a rich, brilliant, 

 metallic, purplish-blue colour. The rest of the tail 

 feathers, which gradually diminish in length from the 

 second on each side, are black at the base, becoming 

 rich blue towards the tip, which bears a brilliant golden- 

 green mark; the two central feathers are entirely golden- 

 green. The crown of the head is also of a brilliant 

 metallic-green colour, and the throat bears a small 

 patch of shining blue ; the general colour of the rest of 

 the plumage is bronzed green, with the wings purplish- 

 brown. This beautiful bird is said to be very swift in 

 its movements, its flight being very rapid and powerful ; 

 and this, as remarked by Mr. Gould, is indicated by its 

 general form and long forked tail. The female is far 

 less brilliant than the male, and destitute of the very 

 elongated tail-feathers. 



THE GREEN-TAILED SYLPH (Cynanthus smaragdi- 

 caudus) is similar in many respects to the preceding, 

 but exhibits no trace of blue in the tail. It is an 

 inhabitant of Bolivia, and probably of a wide extent of 

 the Peruvian Andes. 



THE RED FLAME-BEARER (Selasphorus rufus"). 

 This elegant little species, like the Ruby-throated 

 Humming-bird (Trochilus colubris], spreads itself over 

 a vast range of latitude, passing the winter in Mexico, 

 and advancing during the summer as far north as 

 Nootka Sound, where it was observed in abundance by 

 Captain Cook. In all its migrations it keeps strictly 

 to the western side of the Eocky Mountains, and thus 

 represents on the west coast of North America, the 

 Ruby-throat of the eastern or Atlantic districts. 



The male of this charming little species, which mea- 

 sures about three inches and a half in length, has the 

 upper surface cinnamon-brown, including the tail 

 feathers, which are of a lanceolate form, and tipped 

 with dark brown ; the wings are purplish-brown, with 

 their coverts bronzed ; the throat is adorned with a 

 large triangular gorget of a most brilliant golden orange- 

 red; the breast is white, and the rest of the lower surface 

 cinnamon brown. In some males the back is of a green 

 colour ; and this is also the case in the females, which 

 have the tail feathers black tipped with white, and in 

 place of the brilliant gorget of the males, a fiery red 

 spot on the tips of most of the feathers of the throat. 

 The males are excessively quarrelsome during the 

 breeding season, when their burnished gorgets look 

 like a brilliant live-coal ; and they emit a sort of bleat- 

 ing note which scarcely sounds like the cry of a bird. 

 They often rise to a great height in the air, and then 

 descend instantaneously almost to the surface of the 

 ground; and during this descent, according to Dr. 

 Townsend, they emit " a strange and astonishingly- 

 loud note, which can be compared to nothing but the 

 rubbing together of the limbs of trees during a high 

 wind." The nest measures two inches and a quarter 

 in height, and three quarters of an inch in breadth at 

 the top ; it is composed of mosses, lichens, and feathers, 

 with a few slender root-fibres, and lined with the fine 



