Generic characters.
Male.—Bill straight, about the same length as the head, and cylindrical; wings somewhat powerful; tail rather round in form and of medium size; feet moderately strong; hind toe and nail the same length as the middle toe and nail; gorget luminous, bounded below by a crescent of white.
Female.—Destitute of luminous colouring.
This is perhaps a better-defined genus than any other of those into which the Andean groups of HummingBirds have been divided. Its characteristics are a moderately long bill surmounted by a band of lustrous colour on the forehead, and a deep luminous gorget separated from the general colour of the body by a semicircular band of white. Like the Heliantheæ and Heliotryphæ, the species of this form range along the Andes on both sides of the equator.
Heliangelus Clarissæ
Habitat: The high lands of New Granada. Plentiful in collections from Bogota.
Plate 242 Heliangelus Clarissæ Sun AngelHeliangelus strophianus (Gould)
Habitat: Ecuador
Plate 243 Heliangelus strophianus Gorgeted Sun AngelHeliangelus Spencei
Habitat: The ranges of Sierra Nevada de Merida in New Granada
Plate 244 Heliangelus Spencei Spence’s Sun AngelHeliangelus amethysticollis
Habitat: Peru
Plate 245 Heliangelus amethysticollis Amethystine Sun AngelHeliangelus Mavors (Gould)
Habitat: The Paramos of Portachuela and Zumbador in New Granada
Plate 246 Heliangelus Mavors MarsFeaturing all 422 illustrated species from John Gould’s A Monograph of the Trochilidæ, or Family of Humming-Birds arranged by color.