HELIOTHRIX BARROTI. 



Columbian Fairy. 



Trochilus Barroti, Bourc. Rev. Zool. 1843, p. 72.— lb. Ann. Sci. Phys. &c. de Lyon, 1843, 



p. 48. t. 4. 

 Heliothrix Barroti, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 115, Heliothrix, sp. 4. 

 barroti, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 69, Heliothrix, sp. 4. 



This beautiful species is very rarely met with either in the collections of this country or in those of the 

 Continent, a circumstance which is doubtless due to its natural habitat being seldom visited by travellers. 

 M. Bourcier, its original describer, states that it inhabits Columbia and Carthagena, and I have myself 

 received a male from M. Warszewicz, procured in Veragua, and a female from Professor Jameson of Quito, 

 who shot it on the western side of Pichincha, at an elevation of 6000 feet ; it is clear, therefore, that how- 

 ever scarce the bird may be in our collections at this time, it will not long remain so, since it cannot fail to 

 be procured in abundance in some portion of its widely-extended range. It is evidently a tenant of the 

 moderately high and temperate regions, where it is a representative of, and doubtless performs the same 

 part in the economy of nature that the H. auritus and H. auricukitus do in the regions inhabited by them ; 

 it is perhaps even more beautiful than either of them, for independently of its possessing all the colours 

 they display, the crown is capped with beautiful blue, a feature which renders it conspicuous and readily 

 recognizable ; in size, in its configuration, and in the whiteness of its throat it is more nearly allied to 

 H. auritus than to H. auriculatus. 



The male has the forehead beautiful violet-blue ; nape, upper surface, upper tail-coverts and upper and 

 under wing-coverts beautiful golden green ; mark below the eye and the ear-coverts black, terminating in a 

 small tuft of blue ; below the black line a streak of rich luminous green ; wings purplish black ; central 

 tail-feathers bluish black ; lateral tail-feathers, chin, throat and under surface pure white ; bill black ; feet 

 flesh-colour. 



The female is similar in colour, but has the crown bronzy green instead of violet-blue ; is destitute of the 

 blue ear-coverts and green moustache; has the throat-feathers slightly speckled with brown, and the lateral 

 tail-feathers banded near their base with purplish black. 



The Plate represents the two sexes of the size of life. 



