774 HUMMING-BIRD, 



38. Trochilus nlger, Lin. Syft. i. p. 192. N° 17. 



BLACK L'Oifeau-mouche de St. Domingue, Brif, orn. iii. p. 702. N° 5. t. 36. f. 8. 



H. B. 



Description. J ENGTH two inches and a quarter. Bill five lines and a half, 

 and black : the head, and from thence to the tail, above, the 

 parts are brownifh black with a copper glofs : fides and thighs 

 grey brown, gloried with the fame : the throat, fore part of the 

 neck, breaft, and belly, whitifti grey : on the throat are fome 

 minute brown fpecks : under tail coverts white quills as ufual : 

 tail fi eel black : legs covered to the toes with grey brown fea- 

 thers : toes and claws black. 

 P a e and Inhabits St. Damingo. Brijfon doubts whether this is not the 



Observauoks. female of the laft : Buffon * joins him in opinion ; and further ob- 

 fervcs, that the laft but one may be taken in alio j the only dif- 

 ference in that and the two laft, is in its being bigger : Notwith- 

 ftanding this, Linnaus will have this laft a diftincl fpecies j and, 

 as I can by no means decide the matter, muft leave it to the fu- 

 ture obfervations of others : I will only make one remark on the 

 almoft impoflibility of determining thefe things, without a long 

 refidence on the fpot where they breed, fince I am credibly in- 

 formed, that they do not gain their true plumage for the firft, 

 nor even the fecond year j and, in this intermediate itate, muft 

 deceive, and perhaps ftrangely multiply the fpecies. This cafe 

 we know is manifeft in many other birds, which we are now 

 thoroughly acquainted with, and had led ornithologifts into ma- 

 ny miftakes, till their nature and manners were fully known f. 



* Rift, des oif. vi. p. 30. 



f M. Bajon remarks, that Creepers, Ramming- birds, and many other fmall 

 fpecies, are lefs lively when young, and of different colours ; fo as to be miftaken. 

 -for different fpecies. Mem. fur Cayenne, vol. ii. p. 255* 



6 Le 



