Male.—Bill straight and longer than the head; wings diminutive; primaries rounded at the tip; outer tail-feather on each side very much prolonged, and terminating in a large spatule.
Female.— Unknown.
Loddigesia mirabilis (Gould)
Habitat: Chachapoyas in Peru
Plate 161
Loddigesia mirabilis
Marvellous Humming-Bird
The racket-tailed birds I have figured under the generic name of Spathura are spread over the temperate regions of the great Andean range of mountains from the northern parts of New Granada to Bolivia. Much confusion prevails with respect to the generic appellation of these birds. The case stands thus: in 1846 I proposed the term Ocreatus, and in 1850 substituted that of Spathura; while in 1849 Dr. Reichenbach employed that of Steganurus, which he changed in 1853 to Steganura. In the body of this work all the species are arranged under my own generic name, which I hope may be allowed to stand.
Featuring all 422 illustrated species from John Gould’s A Monograph of the Trochilidæ, or Family of Humming-Birds arranged by color.
Humming-Birds