184 
THE PI CHIN OH I A N HILL-STAR. 
extremities of the loftiest branches, while the females hover near the ground. Partly owing 
to this peculiarity, and partly on account of her sober tinting, the female generally escapes 
observation. The plant on which the Chimborazian Hill-star is usually found is the Chuquira- 
qua insignis, a flowering alpine shrub, with large pale yellow blossoms, and the bird is so closely 
attached to this shrub, that it is never found at any great distance from its golden dowers. 
The nest of this species is made of lichens, and is fastened to the side of a rock in some 
situation where it is protected 
by an overhanging ledge of 
rock. 
Except upon the head and 
throat, the Chimborazian Hill- 
star is not so brilliantly clothed 
as many of its compeers, but 
upon those parts the creature 
shines with rainbow lightness. 
The general color of the upper 
parts of the body is pale dusky 
olive-green, with the exception 
of the wings, which have the 
purple-brown tint usual among 
Humming-birds. The under 
parts are white, deepening into 
dusky-black upon the under 
tail-coverts, and there is a line 
of black down the centre of the 
abdomen. The head and throat 
are of the brightest and most 
resplendent blue, with the ex- 
ception of an emerald-green 
patch in the centre of the 
throat. This patch is triangu- 
lar in shape, and has one of 
the angles pointing upwards. 
Round the neck runs a broad 
collar of deep velvety-black, 
abruptly dividing the brilliant 
hue of the head and throat from the plain black and white of the chest and abdomen, and 
giving the bird an appearance as if the head and throat of some brightly colored bird had 
been joined to the neck and body of a plainly clad individual of another species. The two 
central feathers of the tail are nearly of the same hue as that of the back, the two exterior 
feathers are white for the first third of their length, and greenish-black for the remaining two- 
thirds, while the other feathers are white, edged with greenish-black. 
The female is a very soberly clad bird, being olive-green upon the head, white spotted with 
green upon the throat, and the remainder of the body olive-green, white, and brownish-black. 
There are several species of Hill-stars, among which the Pichinchian Hill-star is the 
most remarkable. 
This bird is very local, inhabiting the volcanic mountain of Pichinca, in the lepublic 
of Ecuador, and being only found in a zone of five or six hundred feet in width, at an elevation 
of about eleven hundred feet above the level of the sea. It is a very remarkable fact, that 
although both these species inhabit volcanic mountains within thirty miles of each other, and 
are found at nearly the same elevation, the Pichinchian Hill-star is never seen upon China 
borazo, nor the Chimborazian Hill-star upon Pichinca. This species is very like the preceding 
but may be easily distinguished by the absence of the triangular green spot upon the throat. 
CHIMBORAZIAN HILL-STAR. — Oreotrochilus Chimborazo. 
