Genera of Humming Birds. 285 



Female. — Differs from the male by a much shorter tail and is 

 very varied in colouration, the outermost feather is tipped with 

 grayish-white. Laterals bluish-black with outer webs rufous. 

 Medians bluish-black. Throat and breast white, spangled 

 with green. Abdomen and flanks rufous. Rest like the 

 male. 



Total length, 5|-in. Wing, 2\. Tail, 2f. Culmen, i. 



A good number of specimens of this remarkable species 

 were offered for sale in 1873 at the London Docks. Another 

 lot came shortly after. Xo more has come since. The 

 typical specimen was a poor skin. It was secured by Mr 

 H. Whitely, and sold by him, to John Gould. I remember as 

 if it was yesterday, and the excitement it caused to him. At 

 that time I was living at Great Russell Street. He brought it 

 to me at once, and I could scarcelv believe that it was a real 

 species. We thought at first that it was a tail of something 

 else stuck into the body of a Chalybura, but after a careful 

 examination we agreed that it was a new and remarkable 

 genus. I have never been able to know, with certainty, 

 where it came from, but it is probable that the locality for this 

 curious bird is North Brazil or Trinidad. 



Genus CXIV. Heliodoxa, Gould, P.Z.S., 1849, P- 95- 



Leadbeatera, Bon. Consp., Gen. Av., 1850, p. 70. 



Type : H . jacula^ Gould. 



Bill short, stout and straight, slightly longer than the head. 

 Feathers of the forehead projecting on the bill and covering 

 the nostrils. Wrings long, narrow and pointed, reaching the 

 tips of the second lateral rectrices. Tail long, forked ; medians 

 shortest, laterals gradually longer, outermost ones slightly 

 longer than the last lateral. Brilliant gular spot. Tarsi 

 clothed. 8exes unlike. 



Habitat. — Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. 



401. Heliodoxa jacula, Gould, P.Z.S., 1849, P- 96- 



Leadbeatera jacula, Bon. Consp., Gen. Av., 1850, p. 70. 



Coeligena jacula, Reich., Troch. Enum., 1855, p. 4. 



Green-crowned Brilliant, Gould, Mon. Troch., vol. ii., p. 94. 



V Heliodoxe à fer de lance, Muls., Hist. Nat. Ois. Mou., 

 1876, vol. ii., p. 202. 



