Humming-Birds

Genus Cynanthus Swains.

Leaving the genus Lesbia, then, we proceed to that of Cynanthus, and here we arrive at some of the most remarkable and the most beautiful of the Trochilide. Strictly confined to the great Andean mountains and the spurs which jut out as far as eastern Venezuela, these blue-tailed birds enjoy a range of habitat extending from the lands washed by the Caribbean Sea to Peru.

Those inhabiting the neighbourhood of Bogota appear to be divided into two or three local varieties or races; for they are not, in my opinion, sufficiently different to warrant us in regarding them as species. On the other hand, the Ecuadorian bird possesses characters which induced me to consider it distinct.

The variation observable among the Bogotan birds is principally in the colouring of the tail—some having the whole of the feathers blue, while others have the eight central ones tipped with beautiful green.



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