CAMPYLOPTERUS CUVIERI. 



Cuvier's Sabre-wing-. 



Trochilus Cuvierii, De Latt. et Bourc. Rev. ZooL 1846, p. 310. 



Polytmus Cuvieri, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol, i. p. 107, Polytmm, sp. 8. 



Campylopterus cuvieri, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 71, Campylopterm, sp. 9. — Reiclienb. Trocli. 



enumer., p. 9. pi. dccciv. fig. 4871. 

 Aphantochroa Cuvieri, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool.1854, p. 250. — Reiclienb. Aufz. derColibris. 



p. 17. 



In naming this species of Humming Bird after the late Baron Cuvier, I am certain that MM. Bourcier and 

 De Lattre felt assured that they could not add to the fame of that highly gifted and celebrated naturalist. 

 France may indeed be proud of so great a man ; and I must confess that I should have been much better 

 pleased if some finer species of this fine family of birds had been selected for dedication to his memory ; 

 still, although it is one of the most plainly coloured species of the whole of the Trochilidee, it plays a part 

 in the economy of nature quite equal to that of the most glittering and gaily attired, and is none the 

 less important or interesting because of its lesser degree of adornment. 



All that we know respecting this species is, that it inhabits the northern parts of Columbia, the Caraccas, 

 the Isthmus of Panama, and Veragua ; and that the sexes and the young birds from the nest are all attired 

 in a precisely similar style of plumage; in proof of which I may mention, that a little fledgeling I possess, 

 taken from a nest near David in Veragua, is exactly of the same colour as a fully adult male. This latter 

 specimen has the shaft of the first primary considerably dilated, showing clearly the group to which it 

 belongs : its dull colouring and the large white tipping of its outer tail-feathers, too, are in unison with 

 several others of the Campy lopteri, such as C. longipennis^ C. obscurus. Sec. These modestly coloured species 

 form a section which some Trochilidist may hereafter be induced to separate generically from the more gaily 

 adorned C. Delattrei, C, lazulus, &c., but for the present I should prefer to retain them all in the same 



genus. 



Crown of the head brownish green ; all the upper surface and wing-coverts bronzy green ; wings dark 

 purplish brown ; two centre tail-feathers greenish bronze, the remainder greenish bronze at the base, passing 

 into greenish black, and tipped with white, the extent of the white increasing as the feathers recede from 

 the centre ones ; under surface dull bronzy green, each feather fringed with grey ; centre of the abdomen 

 washed with buff; under tail-coverts brown, broadly fringed with white; upper mandible dark brown ; the 

 under mandible appears to have been flesh-coloured ; feet fleshy brown. 



The figures are the size of life. 



