50 



RUFF-NECKED. 



PLATE VIII.-FIG. L 



Trochilus nifus. The English people once had a king who 

 was called "William Eufus, and no doubt our readers are aware 



that he was so called on account of the red colour of his hair 



nifus being the Latin for red, and this is the prevailing colour of 

 the plumage of the elegant little Noothe, or Humming Bird of 

 Nootka Sound, where it was first observed by our great navigator, 

 Captain Cook, who makes the following observations on it: — 

 "There are also Humming Eirds which yet seem to differ from 

 the numerous sorts of this delicate animal already known, un- 

 less they be a mere variety of the Trochilus colubris of Linnasus. 

 These perhaps inhabit more to the southward, and spread north- 

 ward as the season advances; because we saw none at first, 

 though near the time of our departure the natives brought them 

 to the ships in great numbers." 



Although found in the cold and inhospitable region here 

 indicated, yet there is no doubt that, as Captain Cook supposed, 

 the bird ranges far to the south: our naturalist Swainson men- 

 tions that he has received specimens from Eeal del Monte. In a 

 work, entitled "The Northern Zoology," this bird is thus ac- 

 curately described: — "General tint of the upper plumage rufous 

 or cinnamon, which covers the head, ears, neck, back, upper tail 

 covers, and margins of the tail feathers; the crown and the wing 

 covers, however, have a strong coppery greenish gloss, but which 

 does not extend to the ears, the upper line above the eye, or to 

 that between the eye and the bill; the greater and lessei quills 

 and the middle of the tail feathers, with these tips, are all of a 

 pale smoky brown, slightly glossed with violet. Under plumage 

 ■ — the whole of the chin and throat is covered with scale-like 

 feathers of a fine colour and lustre, equally brilliant with the 

 throat of T. moschitus, (see Plate IY,) but with more of a red and 

 less of an orange glow; the tints however change in almost every 

 direction of light, and in all are exquisitely splendid. The middle 

 of the breast and under part of the body is pure white, but all 

 the sides and the under tail covers are of the same colour as the 



