THAUMATIAS BREVIROSTRIS. 



Short-billed Emerald. 



Ornismya brevirostris, Less. Hist. Nat. des Ois. Mou., pp. xxxv et 211. p. 77. — Less. Traite 



d'Orn., p. 283. 

 Basilinna brevirostris, Less. Ind.Gen. et Syn. des Ois. du Genre Trochilus, p.xxvi. — lb. Rev. Zool. 



1839, p. 15. 

 Polytmus brevirostris, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 108, Polytmus, sp. 44. 

 Thaumatias brevirostris, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 78, Thaumatias, sp. 2. 

 Thaumantias brevirostris, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 255. 

 Agyrtria brevirostris y Reichenb. Aufz. der Colibris, p. 10. 



It is extremely difficult to determine with certainty what species of Humming Birds some of the Plates of 

 the older and even of the recent writers are intended to represent. One of the figures to which this remark 

 applies, is that of the Ornismya brevirostris of Lesson's " Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux Mouches." If 

 the bill of the bird there figured be drawn of the right length, then the bird represented must be the 

 common species so frequently sent to London and Paris from Rio de Janeiro ; but if the locality there 

 given, Guiana, be correct, then the Plate is intended to represent some other species, as the bird found at 

 Rio is never seen in that country. The colouring and description given by Lesson, too, are so vague 

 and unsatisfactory, that they further perplex rather than assist in a solution of the difficulty; without 

 rejecting, then, the name of brevirostris altogether, I think it will be best to consider it as referable to the 

 Brazilian bird alone, and that the locality of Guiana is an error, which, it is much to be regretted, has been 

 repeated in most of the published arrangements of the family. 



The two figures in my Plate are copied from specimens collected in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, 

 where, as a note from Mr. Reeves informs me, the species is not common ; but at Novo Friburgo, about 

 seventy miles from the city, it is abundant. 



The nest is a small round cup-shaped structure, composed of soft cottony materials, and decorated 

 externally with the involucres of composite plants ; long shred-like dangling pieces of bark and leaves 

 attached round the rim and to the sides with the finest cobwebs, — so fine, in fact, as to be imperceptible to 

 the naked eye. The eggs, as usual, are two in number, and of a spotless white. 



The local name of the bird at Rio is Krikri branco. Its cry, which is very loud, resembles Pecker, 

 Pecker, Tutzie. 



Crown of the head, all the upper surface, wing-coverts, sides of the neck and breast, and the flanks 

 greenish-bronze ; wings purplish brown ; two central tail-feathers bronzy green ; the remainder bronzy 

 brown, with dusky tips; centre of the throat and abdomen white; under tail-coverts pale bronzy brown, 

 edged with greyish white ; upper mandible black ; under mandible flesh-colour ; feet fleshy brown. 



The figures are of the natural size. 



