SAPPHIRE AND EMERALD HUMMING-BIRD. 325 



parts of the body dark gold-green ; the lower belly 

 white ; the inferior tail-coverts rufous, and the su- 

 perior ones shining golden-brown : the bill white 

 with a black tip. 



Monsr. Viellot informs us that though the above 

 description is generally supposed to belong to the 

 full-grown bird, yet in reality it will apply only 

 to the full-grown young, or bird in its first year's 

 plumage ; and that this species, when in perfection, 

 has no tinge of rufous under the throat, but is of 

 a brilliant sapphire-blue, with the wings brown, 

 the belly black, and the tail blue-black. Native 

 of South- America. 



SAPPHIRE AND EMERALD HUMMING-BIRD. 



Trochilus smaragdo-sapphirinus. T. capite gulaque lucido-sapphi" 

 rinis, corpore viridi-aureo, alisfuscis, cauda chalybea, 



Humming-Bird with bright sapphire-blue head and throat, gold- 

 green body, brown wings, and steel-blue tail. 



Trochilus bicolor, T. rectirostris saturate viridi^auratus, capite 

 coUoque inferiore sapphirinis. Lath. ind. orn, 



Le Saphir-emeraude. Buff, ois, VielL pL 36. 



Sapphire and Emerald Humming-Bird*. Lath, syn. 



This also, which is a middle-sized species, is 

 described by Buffon, who very justly observes that 

 the two brilliant colours with which the bird is in- 

 vested merit the title of the gems by which they 

 are called. He might however have gone farther, 

 and have added that they are accompanied by a 

 vivid metallic splendor not exhibited by the gems 



