SPORADINUS RICCORDL 



Riccord's Humming-Bird. 



Orthorhynchus Ricordi, Ramon de la Sagra, Hist, de Cuba, p. 128. tab. 21. fig. 2. 



Ornismya Parzudhahi, Less. Rev. Zool. 1838, p. 315. 



Sporadinus ricordi, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 255. 



Eylocharis Ricordi, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 114, Hylocharis, sp. 23. 



Trochilus ricordi, Grev. Mag. de Zool. 1835, Ois., pis. 41, 42.— Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av„ p. 81, 



Trochilus, sp. 2. 

 Riccordia Raimondi, Reichenb. Auf. der Col., p. 8. 

 Chlorestes riccordii, Gundl. in Cab. Journ. fiir Orn. 1856, torn. iv. p. 99. 



I have frequently had occasion to remark how limited are the areas affected by some species of this great 

 group of birds, many being confined to even the smallest of the West Indian Islands ; indeed, most of those 

 islands are tenanted by species peculiar to each, and Cuba is not an exception to the rule, — two, at least, 

 of the species which fly there are not to be found elsewhere. Besides being remarkable for the limited 

 extent of its habitat, this species is rendered conspicuous by differing in structure from (with one exception) 

 all the other members of the family ; this difference of structure, however, is only appreciable by the Tro- 

 chilidist and those who have paid much attention to the subject. The differences referred to principally 

 consist in the long and forked form of the tail, and the peculiar shape of the feathers of which it is com- 

 posed, — features which are found in one other species only, the Sporadinus elegans, a bird inhabiting the 

 island of St. Domingo. 



I have great pleasure in extracting a short note from the ' Journal fiir Ornithologie,' a publication of 

 great merit and interest, issued by our German coadjutors under the superintendence of the learned orni- 

 thologist, M. Cabanis. The note is, I believe, from the pen of Dr. Gundlach, who states that the Sporadinus 

 Riccordi is " a very common bird on the island of Cuba, which it never leaves throughout the year. I have 

 found fresh-laid eggs in January, May, and September. I once found a nest that had probably served the 

 same bird for years ; it was, in this case, a nest built upon an old one, and, after this operation had been 

 repeated for five or six nests, the whole structure had turned over on one side, a new nest had been built 

 upon it, and a second again upon this. They nest, as I said above, almost throughout the year. The eggs 

 of each brood are two in number, white, and are set upou for fourteen days before the young appear ; when 

 the latter come out of the eggs they are black, with some bright down upon the back. The very short 

 diminutive beak, which is then rather broad than long, is whitish." 



The following note respecting this species is from the pen of M. Alcide D'Orbigny, and is to be found in 

 M. Ramon de la Sagra's ' Histoire de Cuba,' p. 29 : — 



"Far from migrating, like the Red Humming-Bird {Trochilus cotubris'), this is one of the stationary inha- 

 bitants of the island of Cuba, which it never leaves, and of which it is one of the most beautiful ornaments. 

 The inhabitants (to imitate, doubtless, the sound which it makes whilst flying) give it the name of Zun-Zun. 

 Interesting in its plumage and habits, its works are likewise not without merit. Artificially built, and 

 often composed of wool from the silk which surrounds the seed of Asclepias anasarica, its nest is attached 

 to the forks of young twigs ; like that of all the Trochilidae, it contains only one or two eggs, from which 

 the young are produced, who, at their birth, have the beak very short." 



Much difference occurs in the colouring of the sexes of this bird, but in form they are very similar, — the 

 female having the same peculiarity in the shape of the tail. 



For the loan of the fine female from which my figure of that sex was taken, I am indebted to the liberality 

 of my friend M. Bourcier of Paris, my own collection not being graced with one ; neither, so far as I am 

 aware, is there one in any other collection in this country. 



The entire plumage of the body of the male is bronzy green, the bronzy hue predominating on the head, 

 and the green becoming very luminous on the throat and under surface ; wings purplish brown ; four 

 central tail-feathers dark bronze, the remainder dark purplish black, glossed with bronze on their outer 

 webs; under tail-coverts white, with a streak of brown down the centre; bill dark brown, except at the 

 base of the under mandible, which appears to have been reddish. 



The female has the crown of the head brown ; all the upper surface, wing-coverts, tail-coverts, sides of 

 the neck and flanks bronzy green; wings purplish brown; tail as in the male, but the bronzy hue somewhat 

 greener ; throat and centre of the abdomen pale buff; under tail-coverts buffy white. 



The Plate represents both sexes of the size of life. The plant is the Lacepedea insignis. 



