EUSTEPHANUS FERNANDENSIS. 



Cinnamon Firecrown. 



Trochihts fernandemis, King, Proc. Zool. Soc. part 1. p. 30. — Gray, Handl. B. i. p. 147, 



no. 1899. 

 Trochilus stokesii, King, torn. cit. p. 30. — Lesson, Troch. p. 135. pi. 50 — Jard. Naturalist's 



Library, Humming Birds, ii. p. 55, pL 5. 

 Ornismya cinnamomea, Gerv. Mag. de Zool. v. Oiseaux, pi. 43. 

 Ornismya roUnson, Lesson, Oiseaux-Mouches, Velins, pi. 7. — De Lattre & Less. Rev. 



Zool. 1839, p. 18. 

 Mellisuga stokesii, Gray, Gen. B. i, p. 113. 

 Mellisuga grayi, Gray, torn. cit. p. 113. 



Sephaiioides stokesii, Bonap. Consp. Av. i. p. 82. — Id. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 256. 

 Sephanoides fernandensis, Bonap. Consp. Av. i. p. 82. — Id. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, 



p. 265. 

 Eustephanus stokesii^ Gould, Monogr. Trochil. iv. pi. 266. 

 Eustephanus fernandensis, Gould, Monogr. Trochil. iv. pi. 267. — Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. 



iii. p. 76.— Scl. & Salv. Nomencl. Av. Neotr. p. 90. — Reed, Ibis, 1874, p. 82 — 



Muls. Oiseaux-Mouches, p. 76.— Elliot, Synopsis Trochil. p. 93. 



Amongst the advantages which the issue of the present 'Supplement' bestows on me may be reckoned 

 the opportunity which it gives of correcting certain mistakes in the 'Monograph,' which were due to the 

 imperfect knowledge possessed by ornithologists at the period when the latter work was written. Such a 

 case is the present, in which, from lack of the requisite knowledge, I figured the two sexes of the Cinnamon 

 Firecrown as distinct species, under the names oi E. fernandensu and E. stokesn^ and now that I am giving 

 for the first time a Plate of the more recently discovered E, leyboldi, I have seized the opportunity to 

 refigure the two sexes o^ E.fernandensis. 



The Juan-Fernandez group of islands was for a long time almost a terra incognita to the naturalist ; and 

 until Dr. Sclater published a list in 'The Ibis' of 1871 we were ignorant of the number of birds inhabiting 

 them. The largest island of the group is Mas-a-tierra, or Juan Fernandez, which is situated about 380 

 miles from the coast of Chili; and the second is named Mas-a-fuera, which is about 450 miles from the 

 Chilian coast. There are also a number of small islets belonging to the group. 



On these two islands no less than three species of Humming-birds are known to exist, one of them, 

 E. galeritus^ a well-known Chilian species, being found on Mas-a-tierra. To this same island, however, is 

 confined Eustephanus fernandensis, while E. leyboldi inhabits Mas-a-fuera. The group was first visited by 

 a naturalist in 1825, when Captain King procured some Humming-birds on Mas-a-tierra, and named them 

 as belonging to two distinct species, without apparently suspecting they were sexes of the same bird. 

 Indeed so different in style of coloration are the male and female of E. fernandensis, that any one might be 

 excused for considering them distinct. When Mr. Bridges visited the same island in 1854, he brought back a 

 large number of specimens both oi E, fernandensis and of the so-called E, stokesii, but without a single 

 indication as to the sexes of the specimens, which were examined by me at the time. According to 

 Dr. Sclater, however, Mr. Bridges was quite aware that E, stokesii was only the female bird 5 for he 

 himself informed the late M. Jules Verreaux of the fact in a conversation he had with him in Paris after his 

 return from South America (Ibis, 1871, p. 179, note). I can only say that not the slightest indication of 

 this was noted on Mr. Bridges's specimens; nor was I informed of it by Mr. Cuming, who was his agent. 



Mr. E. C. Reed, of the Santiago Museum, who visited Juan Fernandez in 1870 and again in 1872, says 

 that he dissected all the specimens he shot, and found that in all cases the red birds were males, and the 

 green females. " It is " he remarks, " a very strong bird. It hovers over flowers, then darts away like an 

 arrow to a distance of several hundred yards; I have never seen any other small bird fly so rapidly. 

 It feeds principally from the beautiful purple flowers of the Citharexylon. It has a loud shrill cry." 

 Mr. Bridges found the bird so fearless of man that it could be killed with a stick, so close did it approach. 

 On a closer acquaintance with man it would appear to have become more shy during the twenty years that 

 have elapsed since that gentleman visited the island. 



