PHAETHORNIS NIGRICINCTUS, i««» 



Belted Hermit. 



PhMhornis mgricinctus, Lawr. in Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, vol. vi. p. 260. 



No group of birds requires greater care in discrimiuating its various members than the little Phaethorni, of 

 which there are evidently several very distinct species, but which, from their minute size and their very 

 great similarity of colour, it is most difficult to distinguish the one from the other. These various species 

 are distributed over the wide area extending from Mexico to Peru on the western, and from the Brazils to 

 the Caraccas on the eastern part of the great continent of America. Diminutive as they all are, the present 

 species may be regarded as the very smallest of the group. I have long had a female specimen of this little 

 bird in my possession, sent from the neighbourhood of the Rio Negro by Mr. Wallace, but deferred 

 describing it until I had seen the male : this sex is, I believe, at length before me, having been sent by 

 Mr. Lawrence of New York as the type of his Phaethornis nigricmctiis. Both Mr. Lawrence's specimens 

 and my own have very lengthened bills, with the yellow colouring of the under mandible extending almost 

 to the end, in which respect "they differ from all the other members of the genus, and especially from the 

 species I have named P, Episcopus, but to which they are otherwise most nearly allied. Mr. Lawrence's 

 specimen was collected by Mr. Moore while descending one of the tributaries of the Amazon from Quito to 

 Para : we may therefore infer that the little-known countries of the Upper Amazon are its true habitat. 



The male has the upper surface bright bronzy green, browner on the head; upper tail-coverts bright 

 ferruginous; tail bronzed coppery brown, the outer margin of the external feathers, the tips of the two 

 central feathers and the two next pairs on each side greyish white; wungs purplish brown; under surface 

 deep rufous, with a broad purplish-black band across the breast ; ear-coverts black ; above the eye a line of 

 rufous; upper mandible black; lower mandible orange-red, becoming paler towards the extreme end. 



The female is coppery bronze above ; has the tail-feathers of a more lengthened and cuneate form and 

 largely tipped with buff; the whole of the under surface rich buff; under mandible, with the exception of 

 the extreme tip, yt^How. 



PHAETHORNIS EPISCOPUS, Govid. 



Bishop Hermit. 



Phaethornw Episcopus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xxv. p. 14. 



The Little Brown Hunimmg-hird, Edw. Nat. Hist, of Birds, vol. i. p. . pi. 32 ? 



It will be seen that in this little section of the Phaethorni the males of some of the species have their 

 breasts crossed by a distinct patch of lengthened purplish-black plumes, while in others no such mark 

 occurs in either sex : in no instance have I seen this peculiar character carried to so great an extent as in 

 the present bird, which I received direct from Demerara. It differs from the P. pygnitsus and the P. Eremita 

 in the rich bronzy colouring of its upper surface and in the greater breadth of the black pectoral band, in 

 the bronzy hue of its tail, and in the small size of its wings. There is a little bird figured and described in 

 Edwards's " Natural History," vol. i. pi. 32, said to be from Surinam, which may or may not be the female 

 of this species, and I merely refer to it to show that it had not escaped my attention ; at the same time I 

 must observe, that it is impossible to say which species of these little birds it is Intended to represent. 

 Besides the male, I possess an example which I consider to be a female of this species, also received from 

 Demerara. They are the only examples I have seen ; I would therefore call the attention of persons 

 resident in the fine country of which the species is a native, to the desirability of their sending additional 

 examples to Europe. 



The male has the head, upper surface, and wing-coverts rich golden bronze ; behind the eye a stripe of 

 buff- wino-s purplish brown; tail deep bronzy brown at the base, changing into rich brown near the apex, 

 and 'slightly tipped with grey; rump rufous; ear-coverts black; under surface deep sandy buff, crossed on 

 the breast by a broad band of purplish-black, somewhat elongated plumes ; upper mandible and apical third 

 of the lower mandible black ; basal two-thirds of the latter yellow. 



The female has a cuneate tail, largely tipped with buffy white, and the under surface rufous. 



