LODDIGESIA MIRABILIS, Gould. 



Marvellous Huniming--Bird. 



TrocMlus mirabilis, Bourc. in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xv. p. 42. 

 Loddiggiornis mirabilis, Bonap. in Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 256 

 Mulsantia mirabilis, Reiclienb. Aufz. der Col., p. 12. 

 OrthorhyncJms mirabilis, Reiclienb. Trocli. Enum., p. 9. 



I SCARCELY know how to comiiience my account of a Humming-Bird which has for so many years been an 

 object of the highest Interest, not only to myself, but to every one who has paid attention to the TrochilidcB, 

 and which I have made the type of my genus Loddlgesia, a term proposed in honour of my much-valued and 

 lamented friend the late Mr. George Loddiges. This extraordinary and beautiful bird was killed by Mr. 

 Andrew Mathews, a botanist, who proceeded to Peru some thirty years ago for the purpose of collecting 

 any rare and beautiful plants he might discover, and who, alas for science ! like too many others whose 

 enthusiasm has led them to distant lands for the like purpose, met with an untimely death. Thanks to the 

 kindness ot Miss Loddiges, I have now before me the original letter from Mr. Mathews to her father respecting 

 this bird, sent prior to the transmission of the specimens. In it are tolerably accurate coloured sketches of 

 two Humming-Birds which he conceived to be new to science, as indeed they were at the time : one of them 

 is the bird in question, the other is the Spathura Peruana. Although this letter principally relates to other 

 matters, it will be as well, perhaps, to transcribe the greater portion of it. 



,,T^ c Chachapoyas, October 11th, 1835. 



" Dear ISir, 



Your esteemed favour of the 6th reached me yesterday, per post from Lima. Since I left Lima 

 I have added considerably to my collections, and also in Humming-Birds— several different from the 25 

 species sent you— and only wait a safe opportunity to send them from this to Lima. The two birds repre- 

 sented in the rough sketches sent herewith appear to me to be new. As yet I have met but one of each, and 



1 believe them to be rare in the situations in which I shot them. The country has been in such a state of 

 revolution for some time past, that it is very difficult to send large collections from this to the coast. I have 

 sent two boxes of Epiphytes to Mr. Maclean at Lima, and am waiting an opportunity to forward more. But 

 very few are known. Some of them are large-flowered and beautiful. Those from the Cordillera of this 

 province are very hardy, but generally small-flowered. I had heard of the death of poor Douglas from Mr. 

 Maclean, and regret it extremely. Science has lost one of its ablest and most indefatigable collectors. I 

 can assure you that many times whilst travelling in this country my life has been exposed to imminent 

 danger in the quelrados and bad roads of the Cordillera. 



" I have the nests of three species of Humming-Birds of this province. It is difficult to meet with them 

 (the boys of this country are not bird-nest hunters like those of England) ; it is only by chance I run against 

 one whilst out collecting. 



"With respects to Mr. William Loddiges, I beg to remain, 



" Dear Sir, 



" Yours very truly, 



^ " Andrew Mathews," 



lo George Loddiges, Esq., Hackney, London." 



" No. 1 " {Spathura Peruana^ " I shot at Moyobamba, the capital of the jirovince of Maynas ; and No. 



2 " {Loddlgesia mirabilis) " at Chacapoyas, the capital of the department of the Amazonas. The latter is 

 situated in the Cordillera, but is of a mild and even temperature, its average 64° Fahr." 



Mr. Mathews's sketch of Loddigesia mirabilis is very similar to that of the bird in a sitting position 

 on the lower part of my plate ; but Mr. Loddiges informed me that he had fully satisfied himself that, 



