This pretty little species, to which I have given the trivial name of Blossom-crown, is an inhabitant of the great country of Columbia, and is one of the most recent discoveries made in that rich region.
The single specimen sent to me by M. Linden of Brussels had, I believe, been collected by his brother-in-law in the neighbourhood. of the Auruaco Village of San Antonia, on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Martha, in lat. 10° 40′, long. 72°, at an elevation of 5000 feet; and, so far as I am aware, is the only one that has yet been procured. It appears to be fully adult, and has all the characteristics of the male sex. In giving a figure of it thus early in my work, I am desirous, first, to make it generally known; and secondly, to call the attention of collectors who may visit Santa Martha to the circumstance that examples of it are among the desiderata of our cabinets.
I have placed this bird provisionally in the genus Adelomyia, because in its structure and colouring, except in its lilaceous crown, it more closely assimilates to the A. melanogenys than any other member of the family.
Forehead buffy white, passing into a beautiful deep peach-blossom hue on the crown; throat grey, passing into the rufous of the abdomen; wings purplish brown; middle tail-feathers bronzy; lateral tail-feathers bronzy at the base, passing into purplish black, and largely tipped with buff; bill black; feet apparently light brown.
The figures are of the size of life. The plant is the Listanthus acutangulus.
Featuring all 422 illustrated species from John Gould’s A Monograph of the Trochilidæ, or Family of Humming-Birds arranged by color.
Humming-Birds
