AMAZILIA RIEFFERL 



Rieffer's Amazili. 



Trochilus Riefferi, Bourc. Rev. Zool. 1843, p. 103.— lb. Ann. Sci. Phys. &c. de Lyon, 1843, 



p. 45. 

 Amazilius rieferi, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 78, Amazilius, sp. 10. — lb. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 



1854, p. 254. — Sclat. in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xxvii. p. 145. 

 Amazilia Riefferi, Reiclienb. Auf. der Col., p. 10. — Sclat. in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xxiv. 



p. 140, part xxv. p. 16, and part xxviii. pp. 283, 296. — Salv. in Ibis, vol. ii. p. 270, 

 Polytmus Rieferi, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 108, Polytmus, sp. 72. 

 Trochilus Dubusii, Bourc. Rev. Zool. 1852, p. . 

 Amazilia Dubusii, Reiclienb. Auf. der Col., p. 10. 

 Amazilius dubusi, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 254. — Sclat. in Proc. of Zool. Soc, 



part xxiv. p. 287. — lb. Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xxvii. p. 386. 

 Trochilus fuscicaudatus, Fras. in Proc of Zool. Soc, part viii. p. 17. 

 Ilylocharis fuscicaudatus, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 114, Ilylocharis, sp. 26. 



In a tray now before me I have twenty-five skins of Humming-Birds, all belonging, I believe, to one and the 

 same species, the Amazilia Riefferu These twenty-five specimens are from various localities extending 

 over many degrees of latitude — that is, from the southern parts of Mexico to the confines of Peru. I 

 believe that every part of the high lands which occur between the limits mentioned is frequented by 

 this bird, either as a migrant or a resident. To particularize the localities on the labels attached to my 

 specimens, I may mention Cordova, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Veragua, Bogota, and Guayaquil. 

 The specimens from some of these localities are found to differ slightly in colouring from those procured in 

 others of them ; the differences, however, are very trifling, and not greater than the local variations ob- 

 servable in a hundred other instances, and consequently are not of sufficient importance to justify their 

 separation into distinct species. 



My learned friend and coadjutor M, Bourcier considered the Honduras bird to differ from the others 

 sufficiently to warrant its being regarded as another species, and fixed, I believe, upon the bronzy fringing 

 of the tail-feathers as his principal character ; but I can assure him that this will not hold good, for I have 

 specimens of A* Rieferi, from Bogota and elsewhere, presenting precisely the same feature, I make this 

 remark with the typical specimen from which he took his description before me, and which he has kindly 

 sent to this country, with many others, for the promotion of this work ; the name of Dubusi, then — the 

 term applied by M. Bourcier to this supposed new bird — must sink into a synonym. Even if it were 

 otherwise, the name of Dubusi must give place to that of fuscicaudatus of Fraser, whose description was taken 

 from Honduras specimens ; in truth, that name was proposed before that of Rieferi, — a fact with which 

 I was unacquainted when my Plate of this species was printed. 



There is one peculiarity in the colouring of the Amazilia Rieferi by which it may be at once distinguished 

 from every other known Humming-Bird ; this is, a little red mark on the lores, or the space between the 

 bill and the eye. I need scarcely say that I find this in M. Bourcier's A. Dubusi ; it is not, however, so 

 conspicuous as in some of my specimens, and for this reason, — the bird is, I think, a female, and the mark 

 is not so apparent in that sex as in the male. Of its habits and economy but little has been recorded. 

 Mr. Bridges found it feeding on a Malvaceous plant near the Boqueti, at an elevation of four thousand feet ; 

 Mr. Salvin met with it at Coban in November, and also near Yzabal, and remarked that it was far from 

 common at Coban, and that all the specimens he procured appeared to be males; and Mr. Fraser noticed 

 it feeding from the bark of a large tree in the forest of Babahoyo in Ecuador, and states that when he 

 arrived in Esmeraldas in October it was by no means uncommon, feeding morning and evening round the 

 eaves of the house; in November it was very scarce, and in December not to be seen. 



Crown of the head, all the upper surface, and wing-coverts bronzy green, darkest on the crown; wings 

 dark purplish brown ; upper tail-coverts and tail deep reddish chestnut, narrowly fringed above, and more 

 broadly beneath, with golden bronze, the golden fringing being much darker in some specimens than in 

 others, particularly on the upper side of the tail; throat and breast luminous grass-green; abdomen and 

 flanks bronzy green, passing into pale brown towards the vent ; under tail-coverts rufous, with lighter edges ; 

 bill fleshy brown, with a blacker tip; irides dark hazel; feet brown. 



The figures are of the natural size. The plant is the Odontoglossum hastilabium. 



