CALOTHORAX EVELYNS. 



Bahama Wood-star. 



Trochilus Evelynw, Bourc. Proc. Zool. Soc, part xv. p. 44. — lb. Rev. ZooL 1847, p. 256 

 CalotJiorax EvelyncB, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 110, CalotJiorax, sp. 9. 



EveUrKB, Reich. Auf. der CoL, p. 13. — lb. Troch. Enum., p. 10. 



CaUofhorax evillma^ Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 257. 



TrocJiilus BaJiamensis, Bryant, List of Birds seen at the Bahamas, &c., p. 5. 



To be aware of the existence of a Hiimniing-Bird on the principal of the Bahama Islands, and to fail in every 

 attempt to procure a specimen of it during a period of thirty long years, seems scarcely possible, never- 

 theless such has been the case. Through the instrumentality of a friend at Liverpool, the late Mr. Swainson 

 procured a male from New Providence about thirty years ago, and presented it to the late Mr. Georo-e 

 Loddiges ; from that date the bird appears not to have been noticed by any traveller or naturalist until 1859, 

 when it was observed by Dr. Bryant during his four months' sojourn in the neighbourhood of Nassau in New 

 Providence. It will be seen from the following note that it is by no means rare on at least the principal 

 island of the Bahama group ; indeed it would seem to be even more numerous than is usual with the other 

 members of the group. I am very much indebted to my friend George N. Lawrence, Esq., of New York, for 

 the loan of the two specimens of each sex for the purpose of the accompanying illustration, both of which 

 were collected by Dr. Bryant, to whom much credit is due for the masterly manner in which he has 

 described the birds of that little-known group of islands, the Bahamas. I regret exceedingly to be obliged 

 to reduce the specific name oi Baha7nensis ?i^^\^xveA to the bird by this gentleman to the rank of a synonym ; 

 hut I have no alternative, that of EmlyncB having been given to it some years before by M. Bourcier, 

 when describing some of the rarities contained in the Loddigesian collection. 



The Bahama Wood-star may be ranked among the most beautiful members of its genus ; but few of them 

 possessing greater elegance of form, and certainly none a more lovely-coloured throat. 

 I append Dr. Bryant's observations on the bird, together with his description: — 



"This species of Humming-Bird is the only one found at Nassau and neighbouring islands. It is quite 

 abundant there, and a constant resident. All the specimens I procured, seven in number, were killed in 

 February and the early part of March ; at that time its food consisted almost entirely of a small green aphis, 

 found abundantly on the West Indian vervain {V. Stachytarpheta), a small blue flower that grows in all the 

 dry pastures. Gosse calls the least Humming-Bird of Jamaica the Vervain Humming-Bird, from its hovering 

 round this plant ; but the name would apply equally as well to the present species. I saw nothing in its habits 

 differing from those of the common ruby-throated species, with the exception that it was more quarrelsome 

 in its disposition, chasing the ' fighter,' as the Tyrannus caiidifasciatus is called, whenever it came near him, 

 and that its note is louder and shriller, and much more frequently uttered. Incubation commences by the 

 1st of March. I saw three nests of this bird: one, found on the 3rd of March, contained two eggs partly 

 hatched ; a second, April 10th, one egg ; and another in May, two eggs. The nests are all composed of the 

 same materials, principally the cotton from the silk cotton-tree, with a few downy masses that looked as if 

 derived from some species o? Asdepias ; this was felted and matted together, and the outside stuck over with 

 bits of lichen and little dry stalks or fibres of vegetable nicitter : one now before me measures '030 in 

 diameter and '033 in height externally, and the inside '018 in depth and '025 in diameter. The eggs, 

 like those of all the other members of the family, are two in number, snow-white when blown, and slightly 

 rosy before, and measure '012 in length by *008 in breadth. 



*'^ Description, — ^Adult male: — Above, green with metallic reflexions, slightly golden on the back, and 

 with the tips of some of the feathers in some specimens bluish ; the head darker and more sombre ; wings 

 brownish purple, with dull greenish reflexions in some lights; tail dark purple, almost black, also with 

 greenish reflexions ; the outer feather on each side with an almost obsolete terminal spot of rufous, the next 

 with the whole of the inner web bright cinnamon, the next again with the whole of the inner and the basal 

 half of the outer web of the same colour, this colour then running nearly to the tip in a diagonal manner, 

 leaving the part next the shaft purple ; the basal half of all the shafts, except the two outer, cinnamon ; 

 throat magnificent purple-violet ; immediately below this a broad gorget of white ; abdomen green mixed 

 with rufous ; thighs white ; crissum pale rufous white ; bill and tarsi black. 



