THALURANIA NIGROFASCIATA, Gould. 



Black-banded Wood-Nymph. 



Trochilus ( ?) nigrofasciatus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xiv. p. 98. 



Thalurmiia nigrofasciata, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xx. p. 8. — Reich. Auf. der CoL, 



p. 7.— Cab. Mus. Hein., Tlieil iii. p. 23. 



nigrofasciahis, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 7Q, Thaliirania, sp. 2. 



Polytmus nigrofasciahis, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 108, Polgtmus, sp. 62. 



Thalurania nigrifasciata, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 254. 



Coeligena nigrofasciata, Reich. Troch. Enum., p. 3. t. dclxxxiv. fig. 4506? 



Thalurania viridipectus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc. 1848, p. 13. — Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., 



torn. i. p. 76, Thalurania, sp. 3, — Reich. Auf. der Col., p. 7. — Bonap. Rev. et 



Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 254. 

 Coeligena viyidipectus, Reich. Troch. Enum., p. 3. 



There Is not perhaps a better defined group in the great family of Humming-Birds than that to which I 

 have given the generic name of Thalurania, since all the species of which it is composed bear a very general 

 resemblance to each other, and all are alike distinguished by an exceedingly beautiful style of colouring, of 

 which blue and green are the prevailing tints 5 but so variously are these hues disposed in the several 

 species, that each is readily distinguishable from the other. The present bird (TT mgrofasciatd) is rendered 

 remarkably distinct from its congeners by the deep band of black which crosses the breast and separates 

 the green of the throat from the rich blue of the abdomen. This band, which of course follows the cur- 

 vature of the base of the throat-mark, is broad and conspicuous in some specimens, while in others it is 

 almost obsolete, a circumstance which induced me at one time to believe that the banded and non-banded 

 birds were two distinct species, and to give to the latter the name oi mridipectus \ an examination, however, 

 of a great number of specimens has since convinced me that both that term and nigrofasdata have 

 reference to one and the same bird : mridipectus, therefoi'e, which was proposed in 1848, two years after 

 that of nigrofasdata, has been placed in the rank of a synonym. 



The true habitat of this bird is the forests which border the upper parts of the rivers Amazon and Rio 

 Negro; but it is also found in Bogota; and I have even received specimens in a collection from Quito; 

 whence we may infer that it ranges over a vast extent of country, perhaps over the whole of the eastern 

 dip of the Andes, of Ecuador, and Columbia. 



The sexes present the usual differences in colour; the female being clothed in a most sombre livery, 

 particularly on the under surface, a part which is so richly adorned in the male. 



Throat lustrous green ; edge of the shoulders and abdomen shining blue, separated from the green of the 

 throat by a lunate band of black ; head and back of the neck bronze ; back and wing-coverts brownish 

 green ; wings purplish brown ; tail dull steel-blue ; bill black. 



The female has the head, all the upper surface, and wing-coverts green ; wings purplish brown ; tail green 

 at the base, passing into steel-blue at the extremity, and with a spot of white at the tip of the two outer 

 feathers; all the under surface light brownish grey; bill black. 



The figures are of the natural size. The plant is the Pilumna fragrans. 



