Genus Metallura Gould

Generic characters.

Male.— Bill straight and of moderate length; wings moderate; tail rather large and rounded; tarsi bare; feet rather large; hind toe and nail as long or longer than the middle toe and nail; throat and under surface of the tail luminous, like shining metal.

Female.—Much less brilliant than the male, and in most of the species destitute of the luminous throat-mark.

All the members of this genus are tenants of the Andes, and by far the greater portion of them of Bolivia and Peru; one species, however (the M. tyrianthina), ranges over the whole of the temperate portions of New Granada. I now proceed to arrange the species according to their affinities, commencing with the largest and most gorgeously coloured.

• 215.

  Metallura cupreicauda (Gould)

  Habitat: Bolivia

  Plate 191 Metallura cupreicauda Coppery-Tail

  • Trochilus (Lampornis) opaca, “Licht.” Tschudi, Consp. pp. 38, 210; Id. Faun. Peru. p. 248, 13.
  • Metallura opaca, Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein. Theil iii. p. 69.
• 216.

  Metallura æneicauda (Gould)

  Habitat: Bolivia

  Plate 192 Metallura æneicauda Brassy Tail

  • Urolampra aeneicauda, Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein. Theil iii. p. 68.
• 217.

  Metallura Williami

  Habitat: Popayan

  Plate 193 Metallura Williami Purple-Tail

  • Urolampra Willami, Cab. et Hein. Mus. Stet Theil iii. p. 68, note.
• 218.

  Metallura Primolii (Bonap.)

  Habitat: Peru

  Plate 194 Metallura Primolinus Primoli’s Humming-Bird
• 219.

  Metallura tyrianthina (Bonap.)

  Habitat: New Granada

  Plate 195 Metallura tyrianthina Tyrian-Tail

  • Urolampra tyrianthina, Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein. Theil iii. p. 68.
• 220.

  Metallura Quitensis (Gould)

  Habitat: Ecuador

  No illustrations

  In my account of Metallura tyrianthina, I have given that bird a very wide range of habitat, extending from the Gulf of Darien to Ecuador; but having since had ample opportunities for examining numerous specimens from every locality, I find that the birds from Ecuador are so much larger than those from Bogota that I cannot do otherwise than regard them as distinct. In examples from the two localities mentioned, there is a difference of more than half an inch in the length of their wings, and fully an eighth in the length of their bills; I observe also that the small birds from Bogota are much more richly coloured than the larger ones from Ecuador; the throat is of a more beautiful green, the abdomen much darker, and the reddish-purple of the tail more resplendent; believing the Ecuadorian bird to be distinct, I have no alternative but to give it a name, and I therefore propose for it that of Quitensis.

• 221.

  Metallura smaragdinicollis

  Habitat: Peru and Bolivia

  Plate 196 Metallura smaragdinicollis Violet-Tail

  • Urolampra smaragdinicollis, Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein. Theil i iii. p. 68, note.

Supplemental

• Metallura jelskii / heterocerca Jelski’s Copper-tail
• Metallura primolina Guiana Copper-tail
• Metallura chloropogon White-vented Copper-tail
• Metallura eupogon Red-throated Copper-tail