A single specimen (apparently an adult male) of this bird graces the collection in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris.
This individual was, I believe, brought to Europe by M. D’Orbigny, and was procured either in Peru or Bolivia. The Eriocnemis D’Orbignyi differs from all the other species of the genus I have yet seen, in the possession of a blue frontlet; in size it is very similar to E. vestita, from which, however, as well as from all the others, it differs in several well-marked specific particulars.
The unique specimen contained in the Paris Museum serves to show how little acquainted we are with the Humming-Birds of the countries to the southward of Ecuador. That both Peru and Bolivia possess many species as yet unknown, there seems to be but little doubt.
The following is a description of this bird taken from the Paris specimen:—
Forehead violet blue; all the upper surface uniform bronzy grass-green; throat and under surface glittering golden green, inclining to blue on the centre of the throat and chest; tail steel or bluish black.
The figures are of the size of life. The plant is the Howardia Caracasensis.
Featuring all 422 illustrated species from John Gould’s A Monograph of the Trochilidæ, or Family of Humming-Birds arranged by color.