PHAETHORNIS LONGUEMAREUS. 



Long^uemare's Hermit. 



Trochilus Longuemareus, Less. Les Troch., pp. 15, 160. pis. 2, 62. — lb. Ind. Gen. et Syn. des 



Ois. du gen. Trochilus , p. xv. 

 Ph(Btornis Longuemareus, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 104, Phcetornis, sp. 11. 

 P/iaetornis longuemareus^ Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 67, Phaetornis, sp. 10. 

 Phaethornis Longuemari, Reich. Aufz. der CoL, p. 14. 



It is believed by M. Bourcier and other continental ornithologists that the Phaethornis Longuemareus and 

 jP. intermedius of Lesson are one and the same species ; nevertheless, without doubting such good authorities, 

 I have figured a well-known, but very different Brazilian bird under the latter title, and reserved the former 

 for the present species ; which course I know to be correct, as I possess the identical specimen from which 

 Lesson's figure and description were taken. 



So regularly and so gradually do the species of the genus Phaethornis advance both in size and colouring 

 from the smallest to the largest, that it would be difficult to say to which genus of the group, as subdivided 

 by Prince Charles L. Bonaparte, this bird should be assigned : if these subdivisions be generally adopted, it 

 may remain where the Prince has placed it, with the Pygmornes, in which case it will be the largest species 



of that genus. 



If any one member of the Phaethornes be more commonly sent to Europe than another, it is the bird here 

 represented, which is a native of Guiana, Cayenne and Trinidad. Mr. William Tucker informs me that in 

 the latter country it frequents shady places among the high woods ; and he adds that the sexes are alike in 

 colourinor. 



Crown of the head greyish-brown ; ear-coverts and chin dull black ; all the upper surface, wing- and tail- 

 coverts bronzy-brown ; wings purplish-brown ; under surface, superciliary mark, and stripe from the angle 

 of the mouth buflf; under tail-coverts grey ; tail bronzy-green at the base, succeeded by bronzy blackish- 

 brown, which gradually fades into grey near the tip of the two central feathers ; all the feathers tipped with 

 white; the tips of the lateral ones tinged with buff; upper mandible black; basal two-thirds of the under 

 mandible yellow, the tip black ; feet pure yellow. 



The Plate represents the birds of the natural size. The plant is the Neptunia plena. 



