SPATHURA SOLSTITIALIS, Gould. 



Ecuador Racket-tail. 



Spathura (or Steganurus) solstitialis, Gould, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 4th series, vol. viii. p. 62 



(1871). 

 Steganura solstitialis, Muls. Hist. Nat. Oiseaux-Mouches, iii. p. 260 (1876). — Elliot, Synopsis 



of the Trochilid^, p. 142 (1879). 



The genus Spathura (or, as Mr. Elliot calls it, Steganura) consists at present of six species, whose range 

 extends through Venezuela and Colombia, and thence through Ecuador and Peru into Bolivia ; but they are, 

 as far as we know, entirely absent from the Brazilian and Amazonian districts of South America. These 

 six species form a natural genus, being, as Mr. Elliot well remarks, strongly characterized birds, with luminous 

 throats and breasts, tarsi completely hidden in downy puffs, and elongated external rectrices bare of webs 

 near the tip and ending in a spatula. There are two well-marked divisions of the genus, viz. those species 

 which have their tarsal tufts white, and those which have them rufous. Spathura solstitialis belongs to the 

 latter section, and is further distinguished by having very long outer rectrices and oval spatulas. 



I quote a few remarks on the genus published by me in 1871, when I first described the present species : — 

 "These Racket-tails, as they have been familiarly termed, are denizens of the Andes and the Cordilleras 

 from New Granada to Bolivia, including the great spur which juts off into the Caraccas. I find tliat the two 

 white-booted species, Spathura underwoodi and S. melananthera, frequent the regions worth o( the Equ^itor, 

 that those with red boots, S. peruana, S, rufocaligata, and the new one about to be described, are as exclusively 

 foimd to the south of it, and that the white-booted S. melananthera and this new red-booted species inos- 

 culate in Ecuador. The latter, for which I propose the name solstitialis, dlfl^ers from S, peruana in having, 

 like the white-booted S. underwoodi, the outer margin of the spatulate-tipped tail-feathers grey — a character 

 which is not found in either of the other red-booted species," 



"The following is a copy of my original description : — 



" Male, Bill black ; crown of the head and all the upper surface, flanks, and under tail-coverts dull green ; 

 wings and outer tail-feathers purplish brown, the outer margins of lateral or spatulate feathers grey ; the 

 remaining tail-feathers rich bronzy green above; throat and chest fine glittering green ; tarsi thickly clothed 

 with reddish buff' feathers. 



"Total length 5 inches, bill f, wing If, tail 3i. 



" Female. Destitute of the tail-spatules and of the thick clothing of the tarsi, which are only thinly covered 

 with buff feathers ; bufl^ is also the colour of the crissum ; upper surface grass-green : tail bronzy green, the 

 outer feather on each side tipped with white ; under surface beautifully spotted with green on awhite ground. 

 In size of body she is about the same as the male." 



The habitat of the present species is Ecuador, whence Mr. Buckley brought me several specimens, from 

 some of which the Plate has been drawn. It represents two males and a female, all of the natural size. 



