MASS SUN-ANGEL. 



175 



The crown of its head and the little crest are blackish-brown, and each feather has one 

 small spot of bnff on its tip. The upper parts of the body are of a dark shining green, with a 

 slight buffy wash, and on the tips of several of the secondaries there is a little white spot. 

 The two central feathers of the tail 

 are a dark glossy green with small 

 white tips, and the others are of the 

 same hue in their outer webs, greenish- 

 brown on the inner, and largely tipped 

 with white. The under surface is 

 brownish-black, diversified with some 

 dark buff streaks upon the throat and 

 breast, and with white streaks upon 

 the abdomen and lianks ; the under 

 tail-coverts are brown fringed with 

 buff. The total length of the bird is 

 about four and a half inches. 



Another species belonging to the 

 same genus, Condamine's Sickle- 

 bill {Eutoxeres condamint), is re- 

 markable for its propensity to inhabit 

 high ground. It is a very rare bird, 

 and whenever it is discovered, it is 

 seen feeding among the orchidaceous 

 plants, at an elevation of ten thousand 

 feet above the level of the sea. 



The little group of Humming- 

 birds called the Sun-angels are all 

 remarkable for the exceeding lustre 

 of the feathers which decorate their 

 throats, and the general beauty of their 



plumage. In nearly every species there is a white or buff crescentic mark immediately below 

 the gorget, and they are all inhabitants of the Andes. Concerning the Maes Sun-angel and 

 its habits Mr. Gould speaks in the following words : — 



"Of all the species of the Andean Humming-birds belonging to the genus Heliangelos, I 

 regard this as the most beautiful and interesting ; it has all the charms of novelty to recom- 

 mend it, and it stands alone, too, among its congeners, no other member of the genus similarly 

 colored having been discovered up to the present time. The throat vies with the radiant topaz, 

 while the band on the forehead rivals in brilliancy the frontlet of every other species. . . . 

 The country in which this rare bird flies is the elevated region of Northern Columbia, par- 

 ticularly the flat Paramos of Portachuela and Zambador, where Messrs. Funck and Schlim 

 found it at an elevation of from seven thousand to nine thousand feet ; they also met with it 

 in the Paramos of Los Conejos at a similar elevation. In those districts there doubtless exist 

 other fine species at present unknown to us, for we can scarcely imagine that these travellers 

 procured examples of all the species of the genera which dwell therein, and which we may 

 reasonably expect to be as rich in the feathered tribes as it is in another department of 

 Nature's wonderful works, Botany." 



In the male bird there is a narrow mark upon the forehead of a deep fiery red, and the 

 crown of the head and the upper surface of the body are bronze-green. Behind each eye there 

 is a very small white spot, and a jetty-black cross-streak is drawn from the angle of the mouth 

 towards the neck. The throat is decorated with a gorget of deep fiery red, below which is a 

 crescent-shaped band of whitish buff, and the abdomen is deeper buff, changing to green upon 

 the flanks. The two central feathers of the tail are bronze-green, and the remainder bronze- 



SICKLE-BILL HUMMING-BIRD.— Eutoxevts aquilu. 



