This species of Glaucis, which has only been found hitherto in Veragua and the adjacent states of Central America, is so rare, that two specimens in my own collection, from which the figures were taken, and a third, imperfect in the plumage of the chest, in that of Mr. Loddiges at Hackney, are all the examples that have come under my notice.
When describing the new species of Humming Birds contained in the Loddigesian collection, M. Bourcier very appropriately dedicated this species to Sigismund Rucker, Esq., of Wandsworth, a gentleman distinguished alike for his love of natural science and for his refined taste in the arts.
No species of this sombre-coloured genus is so varied in its markings as the present bird, which is at once distinguished from its congeners by its bicoloured tail and rufescent chest. The specimens in my own collection were recently transmitted to me by M. Warszewiez, the intrepid traveller now engaged in search of botanical rarities in the most remote parts of the vast forests of the great Andean Ranges of the New World. In order to give a just idea of this new species, I have figured it in various positions on one of the beautiful Orchids of the country in which it is found, namely the Sobralia decora. Judging from the other members of the genus Glaucis, but little difference will be found in the colouring of the plumage of the two sexes.
Crown of the head, neck, scapularies, back and upper tail-coverts dark shining bronzy green; lores and streak behind the eye black, above the posterior portion of which is a streak of white, and beneath it another commencing at the angle of the bill; chin dark brown; on the centre of the throat a patch of rufous; under surface brownish grey, with bronzy reflexions; wings purple-brown; under tail-coverts bronzy green; two centre tail-feathers dark shining green, slightly tipped with white; the remainder white at the base and tip, the central portion being occupied by a broad band of brownish black; upper mandible black; basal three-fourths of the under mandible yellow, the tip black.
The figures are of the natural size.
Featuring all 422 illustrated species from John Gould’s A Monograph of the Trochilidæ, or Family of Humming-Birds arranged by color.
Humming-Birds
