122 



AVOSET-BILLED HUMMING-BIRD 



Trochilus avocetta LESSON. 



PLATE II. 



L'Oiseau-mouche avocette, Ornismya avocetta, Lesson, ffistoire 

 Naturelle des Oiseaux-mouches, pi. xxiv. 



THE curious form and structure of the bill of the 

 birds figured on this and the following plates, first 

 attracted the attention of Mr Swainson, who gave an 

 excellent representation of the latter on plate 105 of 

 his Illustrations) from specimens procured in Peru by 

 Mr Bullock. Upon the publication of M. Lesson's 

 beautiful monograph of this family, he was obliged to 

 have recourse to Mr Swainson's figure, to gratify (he 

 observes) the French amateurs with the representation 

 of a bird so rare and curious, no specimen at this time 

 existing in the Paris collections. Soon after, an acces- 

 sion of species previously unknown to him, occasioned 

 the continuation of the monograph by a supplement, 

 and he has in it figured two birds, the one as identi- 

 cal with T. recurvirostris, Swainson, the other given 

 under the title of T. avocetta, and considered by that 

 ornithologist as the young of some new and undescribed 



