EUSTEPHANUS LEYBOLDI, oouid. 



Leybold's Firecrown. 



Eitstephamis leyholdi, Gould, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 4tli series, vol. vi. p. 406. — Sclater, 

 Ibis, 1871, p. 181.— Reed, Ibis, 1874, p. 84.— Mulsant, Hist. Nat. Oiseaux- 

 Mouches, p. 256. — Elliot, Synopsis Trochil. p. 94. 



About ten years ago Dr. Leybold, of the Santiago Museum, Chili, was in London, and frequently visited 

 my house, when we had several conversations respecting the Humming-birds of the Juan-Fernandez group, 

 concerning which he had much to tell me. Amongst other things which interested me greatly was the 

 information Dr. Leybold gave about the Firecrowns of Juan Fernandez. He promised me that on 

 his return to Chili he would send a collector and get me specimens, if possible, from the group, which 

 promise he faithfully fulfilled, with the result that a new species of Humming-bird was found to exist on the 

 hitherto unexplored island of Mas-a-fuera. 



I described the species in 1870 from specimens presented to me by Dr. Leybold; and in attaching that 

 gentleman's name to it I was only adding one more acknowledgment of his zeal and devotion to the 

 Museum under his charge, while at the same time it expressed my own personal obligations to him for his 

 kindness in seeking out the specimens for me. 



It is an interesting fact in connexion with the present species that it is only the female bird that gives 

 characters for specific separation from E. fernandensis. It is an unusual thing for species to be founded on 

 the female birds ; but there are several parallel cases known to ornithologists where the males are nearly 

 alike, while the females are quite diflferent. Tlie following description of the species is taken from my 

 original account of ^. leyboldi. 



It has a glittering crown, and is in many respects very similar to the bird usually called E. stokesi, but 

 diflTers in having a longer bill, and in the spots on the throat being bronzy and disposed in lines down that 

 part of the under surface and the flanks, as in E. gakritiis, instead of being generally dispersed over the 

 throat and clustered on the face, as in E. stokesi \ but the greatest diflference between the two consists in 

 the colouring of the tail-feathers, those of E, stokesi having their outer webs green, and their inner ones 

 wholly white, while in the present bird the outer webs and the basal portion of the inner ones are green, 

 and only the apical portion of the latter white. 



Total length 41 inches, bill tI, wing 21, tad 2, tarsus I. 



The figures in the Plate are drawn from the typical specimens in my collection, and represent a pair of 

 birds of the size of life. 



