EUTOXERES HETERURA, Gould. 



Ecuadorean Sickle-bill. 



Eutoooeres heterura, Gould, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) i. p. 455 (1868). — Elliot, Synopsis of 

 the Humming-Birds, p. 3 (1878). — Eudes-Deslongchamps, Annuaire Mus. d'Hist. 

 Nat. Caen, i. p. 73 (1881). 



Grypus heterura, Gray, Hand-list of Birds, i. p. 123, no. 1548 (1869). 



This species is not very different from the Colombian Eutoweres aquila, which it replaces in Ecuador; but 

 the stripes on the breast seem to be always of a bright fulvous colour, instead of whitish as in the above- 

 mentioned bird. 



The following remarks are quoted from my original paper on these birds : — *' I have for some time past 

 had reason to believe that the Humming-birds of this highly singular form comprised more species than the 

 two already described {Eutoweres aqulla and E, Condamint) ; but it is only of late that I have acquired 

 sufficient materials to justify my arriving at any satisfactory conclusion on the subject. At this moment I 

 have before me three specimens of the true E. aquila from New Granada, seven skins of a bird from the 

 neighbourhood of Quito, which I consider to be distinct from that species, and three from Veragua, which 

 differ slightly from both. 



*' E. aquila is the largest species of the genus, and is distinguished by the snow-white shafts of its tail- 

 feathers, which doubtless show very conspicuously when the bird is on the wing and the tail widely spread ; 

 this character is found in every specimen I have examined, and, I believe, will prove constant. The Quitan 

 bird, like some of the Phaethornithes, is extremely variable in its markings; for instance, the tail, in some 

 specimens, has the tips of the feathers white for nearly half an inch from the tip, in others for a quarter, in 

 others, again, for an eighth ; and I possess one in which the white tipping is absent, all the feathers being of 

 a uniform olive-grey ; but in no instance that I have seen does the white extend down the shaft as in 

 E. aquila. On comparing the seven Quitan specimens with the Bogotan birds, I find that the stri^ on the 

 breast are black and white in the former, and black and buff in the latter. I shall designate the Quitan bird 

 E, heterura, with the following description : — 



" Upper mandible wholly black, under mandible yellow for two thirds of its length from the base, the 

 remainder olive-brown; crown of the head nearly black, each feather glossed with green at the tip ; upper 

 surface dull grass-green ; tail olive-grey, in some instances tipped with sullied white ; wings deep purplish 

 black; under surface, from the throat to the vent, striated with black and buff, the buff becomii»g lighter on 

 the centre of the abdomen ; under tail-coverts brown, varied with black. Total length 5 inches, bill 1, wing 

 21, tail 2i tarsi |." 



