SAPPHIRONIA C^RULEOGULARIS, Gould. 



Blue-throated Sapphironia. 



TrocJiilus ( ?) caruleogularis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xviii. p. 163. 



Diickassaigni, Bourc. Compt. Rend, de l'Acad. des Sci., torn, xxxii. p. 187. 



Thalurania Ccelina, Bourc. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1856, p. 552. 

 Cyanochloris cceruleigularis, Reichenb. Auf. der Col., p. 10. 

 Sapphironia cceruleigularis, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 256. 

 Hylocharis (?) c&ruleigularis, Sclat. in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xxiv. p. 140. 



I have not placed the Trochilus Duchassaigni and Thalurania C&lina of M. Bourcier among the synonyms of 

 the present species without due consideration and a careful comparison of the typical specimens one with 

 the other. The T. Duchassaigrii is a young male of the hird here represented which had not fully attained 

 the blue colouring of the throat. The specific name Ccelina not having been given till a year later than 

 my own of camdeogularis, it must give place to that term ; besides which, the bird is not a Thalurania. 



In form, this species and Sapphironia Goudoti are precisely alike, and these birds form a minute but well- 

 marked section of the Trochilidce ', the species of which are characterized by great elegance of form, as well 

 as by the beauty of their colouring : the under tail-coverts of both species are very conspicuous and extremely 

 pretty. 



M. Verreaux has received this bird in tolerable abundance from Santa Martha; my own were obtained in 

 Costa Rica, and M. Bourcier's from Panama; it is clear, therefore, that New Grenada, Panama, and Costa 

 Rica are the countries in which this bird flies. Mr. Bridges informs us that it is found in the very streets 

 of the town of David, feeding on the Tamarindus Indicus and orange-trees, and that, like all other Humming- 

 Birds, it is very pugnacious, and constantly fighting with others of its species. 



A marked difference is observable in the colouring of the sexes, — the female, although having the same 

 lengthened form as the male, being devoid of the bright blue of the throat and the fine green of the ab- 

 domen — those parts being greyish white ; these, as well as other differences, will be readily perceived on an 

 inspection of the accompanying figures, or a perusal of the following descriptions : — 



The male has the upper surface, shoulders, abdomen, and under tail-coverts grass-green ; throat, sides of 

 the neck and chest rich violet-blue ; wings purplish brown ; central tail-feathers bronzy green ; lateral feathers 

 purplish black ; upper mandible and tip of the lower black, the basal portion of the latter ashy white ; the 

 under tail-coverts, which are largely developed, green, margined with silvery grey. 



The female has the upper surface bronzy green ; tail purplish black, the two central feathers glossed with 

 bronze, the four lateral feathers on each side tipped with white; centre of the throat, abdomen, and under 

 tail-coverts white. 



The figures are those of the male and female of the size of life. The plant is the Cuphea silenoides. 



