INTRODUCTION. Ixxix 



228. Anthocephala ? castaneiventrts. 



Adelomyia ? castaneiventris, Gow/c? .......... Vol. III. PI. 203. 



Habitat, Chiriqui. 



The fourth volume commences with a species which plays no inconsiderable part as an article of trade ; for it 

 is the one, par excellence, of which thousands are annually sent to Europe for the purpose of contributing to the 

 decorations of the drawing-rooms of the wealthy, for the manufacture of artificial flowers, &c. ; and well suited is 

 it for such purposes, its rich ruby and topaz-hke colouring rendering it one of the most conspicuous and beautiful 

 objects imaginable. The Chrysolampis moschitus (better known by its trivial name of Ruby and Topaz Humming- 

 Bird) enjoys a very wide range, being found all over the eastern parts of Brazil, Cayenne, Guiana, Venezuela, the 

 high lands of Bogota, and Trinidad. 



The females of this form differ very widely from the males in the colouring of their plumage ; and the young 

 males undergo so many changes between youth and maturity, that they must have puzzled the most astute of 

 ornithological investigators. 



Genus Chrysolampis, Bote. 



229. Chrysolampis moschitus ............ Vol. IV. PL 204. 



Chrysolampis moschita, Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein. Theil iii. p. 21. 



Chrysolampis Reichenbachi, Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein. Theil iii. p. 21. 



Habitat, Guiana, Cayenne, Brazil, Venezuela, the Andes of New Granada, and the islands of Trinidad and 

 Tobago. 



Dr. Cabanis is of opinion that the bird from New Granada is distinct from that obtained in the other localities ; 

 but I must receive more decided evidence that such is the case than I at present possess, before I can admit that 

 there is any difference between the Andean and Brazilian examples ; for the present, therefore, I place his name of 

 C. Reichenbachi as a synonym of C. moschitus, which I believe to be the only species yet known of the genus. 



"This pretty little species " [says Mr. Kirk] " arrives in Tobago at the end of January or about the 1st of 

 February. It begins to build about the 10th, lays two pure-white eggs, and sits fourteen days. It feeds on ants 

 as well as flowers. I detected 115 small insects in the stomach of one I dissected. One of these birds havino: 

 attached its nest to the trunk of a logwood tree close to a window of my residence, I had an opportunity of 

 observing its manners during incubation, and I can assert that, although I confined the young by means of some 

 coarse wire cloth, through which the parent could feed them, for upwards of three weeks after they were ready to 

 leave the nest, and although she evinced the greatest distress by her chirping note when flying around me, often 

 within three feet, I never but twice, from the laying until the period I mention, saw a male near the nest; and 

 whether they pair seems to be disputed, as on both these occasions he was hotly pursued by the female to a 

 considerable distance with all the bickering violence so peculiar to the tribe. "^ — Hor(S Zoologies, by Sir. W. Jardine, 

 Bart., in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xx. p. 373. 



In proceeding next to the genus Orthorhynchus, composed of birds ornamented with glittering green and blue 

 crests, I do not insist that they have any direct affinity with the last, nor are they intimately allied to the members 

 of the succeeding one : a more isolated form, in fact, is not to be found among the TrochiUdse. Only two species 

 have been recorded by previous writers ; but specimens of a third are contained both in the Loddigesian and my 

 own collections : I allude to the bird here described under the name of Orthorhynchus ornatus. 



All the members of the 



Genus Orthorhynchus, Cuv.^ 



are confined to the West India Islands ; but our present knowledge of them does not admit of my stating positively 

 the extent of the range of each species ; this is a point which requires further investigation. The females differ 

 from the males in being destitute of the glittering crown. 



230. Orthorhynchus cristatus ........... Vol. IV. PL 205. 



Orthorhynchus cristatus, Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein. Theil iii. p. 61. 



Habitat. Barbadoes, and St. Vincent. 



