122 
A V OSET-BI LLED HUMMING-BIRD 
Trochilus avocetta — Lesson. 
Plate II. 
L’Oiseau-mouche avocette, Omismya avocetta. Lesson , Ilistoire 
Natureile des Oiseaux-mouches , pi. xxiv. 
The curious form and structure of the bill of the 
birds figured on this and the following plates, first 
attracted the attention of Mr Swainson, who gave an 
excellent representation of the latter on plate 105 of 
his Illustrations, from specimens procured in Peru by 
Mr Bullock. Upon the publication of M. Lesson’s 
beautiful monograph of this family, he was obliged to 
have recourse to Mr Swainson’s figure, to gratify (he 
observes) the French amateurs with the representation 
of a bird so rare and curious, no specimen at this time 
existing in the Paris collections. Soon after, an acces- 
sion of species previously unknown to him, occasioned 
the continuation of the monograph by a supplement, 
and he has in it figured two birds, the one as identi- 
cal with T. recurvirostris, Swainson, the other given 
under the title of T. avocetta, and considered by that 
ornithologist as the young of some new and undescribed 
