Up to within a few weeks of the present time, July 1855, a single specimen only of this bird, so far as I am aware, was to be found in Europe.
The specimen alluded to, which is said to have been procured in Ecuador, forms part of the Collection of M. Bourcier, and was kindly transmitted to London for the purpose of being figured in the present work: after my figures of this then unique bird had been drawn and the Plate printed, I myself received a very fine example direct from Rio de Janeiro, where it was collected by M. De Gand in the district of Espiritu Santo. In all probability, then, this bird inhabits the interior of Brazil as well as the country whence M. Bourcier received his example. I regret that I had not received my bird before the Plate was printed, as I might have made some differences in the figures; for I find that M. Bourcier’s specimen has been contracted in the process of mounting, and that consequently the drawing does not represent the bird so large as life: it will be seen also, on reference to the figures, that most of the tail-feathers are represented as indented at the extremity; I at first thought that this was a peculiar character, but in my specimen this feature occurs only in one feather, all the others being beautifully tipped with fawn-white, which portion of the feather has, by some process unknown to us, been thrown off in M. Bourcier’s specimen. When perfect, this is a very fine species: it is nearly allied to Glauces hirsutus, but differs in having all the tail-feathers, except at their extreme tips, of a beautiful bronzy green instead of chestnut.
M. Bourcier has “dedicated this species to M. Dohrn, President of the Entomological Society of Stettin, and one of the most zealous friends of the natural sciences.”
Head, upper surface and wing-coverts dull green; rump and upper tail-coverts dull green, bordered with a rufous tint; tail bronzy green, each feather tipped with fawn-white, the extent of which increases as the feathers recede from the centre; wings purplish brown; above and behind the eye a stripe of pale buff; throat and all the under surface, including the under tail-coverts, deep fawn-colour; upper mandible black; under mandible straw-white for the basal two-thirds of its length, black on the apical third; feet yellow.
The plant is the Barnadesia rosea.
Featuring all 422 illustrated species from John Gould’s A Monograph of the Trochilidæ, or Family of Humming-Birds arranged by color.
Humming-Birds
