CAMPYLOPTERUS ROBERTI. 



Owen's Sabre-wing*. 



Alphantochroa Roherti^ Salv. in Proc. of ZooL Soc, part xxix. p. 203. 



I HAVE great pleasure in figuring a bird which, I am certain, is quite new to science. It was collected in the 

 Vera Paz mountains of Central America by Mr. Robert Owen, after whom it has been named by Mr. Salvin. 

 In point of affinity it is more nearly allied to the bird known to ornithologists as the Campylopteriis Cumeri 

 than to any other; but it differs from it in many particulars, all purely specific, for in point of form the two 

 birds are precisely similar. In size it is rather the smallest ; both its mandibles are black instead of being- 

 lighter beneath ; and the plumage of the body is more lustrous ; but the greatest difference occurs in 

 the colouring of the middle portion of the two outer tall-feathers, that part being black instead of dark 

 green; there is also a less amount of white on the tips of those feathers. The shaft of the first primary 

 is slightly dilated, — a circumstance which shows that this species, as well as the C, Cumeri^ for which I have 

 proposed the generic natne of Phceochroa in the ' Introduction,' are closely allied to the Campylopteri, 



Head and all the upper surface bronzy green ; throat, chest, and flanks bronzy green ; centre of the 

 abdomen mottled bronzy green and greyish white ; under tail-coverts olive-green fringed with greyish 

 white ; two centre tail-feathers bronzy green slightly tipped with bluish black ; the two next on each side 

 bronzy, more largely tipped with bluish black; the extreme base of the two lateral feathers bronzy green, to 

 which succeeds a broad zone of black, and the tips white ; wings purplish brown ; bill and feet black. 



The figures are of the natural size, or, if anything, rather less. The plant is the Echeveria canalicidata. 



