34 



DEL AL AIDE'S. 



PLATE III. — FIG. 2; 



Trochilus Delalandi. "We have here another Brazilian species, 

 named after its discoverer, M. Delalande; it is chiefly re- 

 markable for its curious crest, all the feathers of which, are 

 short except one, which rises from the centre like a horn, 

 curving outward; the colour of this crest is a rich deep blue, 

 tipped with white; it can be erected or folded back at the 

 pleasure of the bird, whose plumage is chiefly blue and green 

 and purplish brown, relieved by grey and white, the latter 

 forming a very conspicuous circular patch just behind the eye, 

 including the auricular, or ear feathers; the extremities of the 

 larger tail feathers are also white. The female is without the 

 crest, and her colours, although generally the same, are less 

 brilliant than those of her mate; the under parts of the body 

 are mostly of a soft grey tint, which is very pleasing to the 

 eye. 



Another Humming Bird with a somewhat similar crest, but 

 of a lilac colour, has been discovered in a province of Brazil, 

 called Eio Grande, and named after Mr. Lodiges, an eminent 

 English collector of these feathered gems; it has been proposed 

 to form them into a genus with the name Cephalepis. 



These birds are generally called Plover- crests, on account of 

 the peculiar form of the head ornaments; they are a very elegant 

 species; in the male of Delalancli, figured in Mr. Gould s mono- 

 graph, the crest is a rich metallic green, and the single feather 

 that shoots up like a horn, is purple; the nest represented is a 

 beautiful structure, woven of fine fibrous roots, gay- coloured 

 mosses, and the heads of flowering plants, matted together with 

 fine cobwebs, and suspended among the smaller twigs of a kind 

 of bamboo; its shape is something that of a funnel, without 

 the pipe. 



