RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD. 341 



is considered as one of the rarer kinds of Hum- 

 ming-Bird. 



VAR. ? 



Rubis-Viellof. Sonnini Buff, 

 Le Grand Rubis. Viellot. pi. 27. 



This is described bj Monsr. Viellot, who, in the 

 opinion of Monsr. Sonnini, has improperly named 

 it Le Grand Rubis ^ since, according to his own 

 account, it measures less by about a line than the 

 Ruby-Throated Humming-Bird, to which it is con- 

 siderably allied. Its length is four inches and 

 three lines, and its colour on the upper parts dark 

 or blackish grey-brown, the wing-coverts and tail 

 gilded-rufous, the exterior quill-feathers edged with 

 bright rufous, and** the exterior tail-feathers with 

 white: the forehead, and under parts, from the 

 throat, bright gold-green, growing dull-blue be- 

 neath the belly: the throat is of a bright golden 

 ruby-colour. This species is said to be a native of 

 ' Brasil and Guiana, and the specimen figured in 

 the work of Messieurs Audebert and Viellot is 

 preserved in the Parisian Museum. 



Monsr. Viellot describes and figures, under the 

 name of Trochilus obscuruSy what may, perhaps, 

 be either the female or young of the above : it is 

 somewhat smaller, and is of a slightly-gilded brown 

 above, and ash-coloured beneath; the tail pale fer- 

 ruginous, with a black bar near the end, and tip- 

 ped with white. 



