THAUMATIAS NITIDIFRONS, Gould. 



Brilliant-fronted Emerald. 



Thaumatias nitidifrons, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xxviii. p. 308. 



Of the genus Thaumatias there are four birds which to the eye of the unpractised observer would appear 

 to be one and the same, but which any person conversant with the Humming-Birds would at once pronounce 

 to be distinct species. The birds to which I allude are Thaumatias brevirostris, T. ajfinis, T. Mitteri, and 

 T. nitidifrons. It is the differences which distinguish the latter bird that I have now to point out. 



All four of the birds are very similar in size and in the colouring of their tails ; but the T. brevirostris 

 and T ajjinis are destitute of any brilliant colouring on the crown ; on the other hand, the T Mitteri has a 

 glittering crown and a white breast ; while the T nitidifrons differs in having both a brilliant crown and a 

 brilliant breast — a union of characters which at once distinguishes it from its near allies. 



The following is the description of this species, and the accompanying remark, which I published in the 

 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' and which it will be as well to reprint, notwithstanding the 

 repetition of what I have already said, in some parts of the concluding sentence. 



Of its habitat nothing is at present known. 



" Crown of the head, face, chest, and breast glittering green ; abdomen and flanks golden green ; back, 

 shoulders, and rump bronzy-green ; tail pale bronzy greyish-green, with a zone of purplish-brown crossing 

 the four lateral feathers on each side near their tips ; under tail-coverts grey, with a patch of bronzy-green 

 in the centre of each ; tarsi greyish-brown ; upper mandible black; under mandible yellow, black at the tip. 



"Remark. — Nearly allied to the 7\ brevirostris and T. Mitteri, but differing from both in the glittering 

 green of the face and crown, and in the centre of the breast being covered with the same shining colour. 

 The specimen described was presented to me by G. N. Lawrence, Esq., when I visited New York in 1858." 



The plate represents a specimen which appears to be a male of the size of life. The plant is the 

 Tacsonia sanguinea. 



