HUMMING-BIRD. 317 



middle of the back green ; from the bill, through the eye, a fine 

 blue stripe, passing almost to the nape ; the lower part of this edged 

 with black ; upper parts of the body and wings brown ; belly and 

 vent the colour of cinnabar, but not glossy, like the rest of the 

 plumage ; tail even at the end, and brown ; legs pale brown. 



A specimen of this is in the British Museum, but without any 

 history annexed.* Among the drawings of General Davies is one, 

 measuring five inches. The colours of the plumage much the same, 

 except that beneath the black, at the back of the neck, is a narrow 

 band of blue green ; the wing coverts, and upper part of the back, 

 incline to green, and under part of the tail to purple. 



In the Ois. dor. the figure is without the black under the blue 

 nape, and the tail seems longer than in my figure. 



38— CRIMSON-HEADED BLUE HUMMING-BIRD. 



Trochilus cyaneus, Ind. Orn. i. 309. 



venustissimus, Gm. Lin. i. 490. 



Polytmus Mexicanus cyaneus, Bris.'ui. 681. Id. 8vo. ii. 24. 



Avic. Mexicana cyaneo colore venustissima, Seba, i. 102. t. 65. 3. Klein, 107. iii. 2. 

 Colibri bleu, Buf. vi. 61. Ois. dor. i. 125. Shaw's Zool. viii. 292. 

 Crimson-headed blue Humming-Bird, Gen. Syn. ii. 762. 



HALF as large as a Wren. Head, throat, and under part of 

 the body, to the middle of the belly, like crimson velvet, with 

 different glosses, as they are exposed to different lights ; back blue; 

 wings black. 



* It has been suggested to me, that this is no other than a bird made up by the inge- 

 nuity of some whimsical person, who has fabricated it from the feathers of others ; but 

 which, by every attention paid to it, I cannot detect ; yet should it prove to be so, it is not 

 the only deception among the many thousands of Natural History Curiosities in the place, 

 where it is yet to be seen : for instance, — The Papilio Ecclipsis, first figured in the 10th plate 

 of the first Decade of Petiver's Gazophy/aceum, was taken by him from a specimen in the 



