ORNITHOLOGY. 



Captain Cook, in his first voyage round the world : that in which he 

 was accompanied by Sir Joseph Banks, and Dr. Solander. The New 

 Zealand specimen,^ though it nearly accords with the bird described by 

 Buffon under the name of Hupecol de Cayenne, does not entirely 

 agree with the description given of that species by Dr. Latham : it 

 differs in wanting the white band on the rump, and the patch or 

 space of the same colour on the lower region of the belly. Buffon 

 speaks of such a characteristic mark of white on the rump, but not 

 the abdomen of the Cayenne kind.* And it is not unlikely that 

 these appearances may be indications only of a change in plumage, 

 as the same circumstance is not unfrequently observed in many other 

 birds at particular seasons, or in certain states of moulting. Dr. La- 

 tham himself observes that in the female these marks, instead of being 

 white, inchne to rufous, and this, no doubt, in the adult bird. There 

 is certainly no appearance of white either upon the rump or region of 

 the belly in the bird before us ; and this example bears every appear- 

 ance of having arrived at its full maturity of plumage. Perhaps the 

 bird from Cayenne having a white band on the rump and abdomen, 

 may be, however, if not a distinct variety, the more mature bird 

 of the same species as that met with by our circumnavigators at 

 New Zealand. 



There are species of this tribe more brilliant in colour and more 

 richly varied in the disposition of those colours, but assuredly none 

 more singular or pleasing in general aspect than the bird before us. 

 In point of size the Tufted Humming Bird is one of the smallest species 

 of its family, scarcely exceeding in that respect the figure delineated in 



* " Le dessus du corps est d'un vert-sombre, qui jette quelques reflet£ 

 dores ; les parties inferieures ne presentent que des coleurs rembrunies." 



Buffon 



