HELIOTRYPHA BARRALLI, Mubs. & Verr.

Olive-throated Humming-bird.

Heliotrypha barrali, Mulsant et Verreaux, Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon, xvii. p. 108 (1868).—
Elliot, Synopsis of the Humming-Birds, p. 88 (1878).

Heliangelus squamigularis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 503.

Nodalia barrali, Mulsant, Hist. Nat. Oiseaux-Mouches, iii. p. 100 (1877).

 

Tue specimen which we described as Heliangelus squamegularis struck us at the time as being very peculiar,
and we mentioned that it appeared to be allied to Heliotrypha parzudaku and Heliangelus clarisse.
Mr. D. G. Elliot, in his ‘Synopsis,’ places it at the end of the genus Heliotrypha and just before the genus
Heliangelus, showing that our position for the species was not badly chosen, though Mr. Elliot places it in
the genus Hediotrypha, and in this he is no doubt right.

The four species of Heliotrypha differ from each other in the colour of the throat, and this in the present
bird is most peculiar, being well described by Mr. Elliot as of a ‘ pale metallic olive-green” colour. Its
habitat is the province of Antioquia, in the United States of Colombia.

The following is Mr. Elliot’s description of the type, which is in bis collection :—

« Adult male. Top of head very dark green, almost black in certain lights. ‘Throat pale metallic olive-
green, silvery in some lights, margined with a line of black. Rest of plumage of body shining grass-green,
most brilliant on the breast. Wings purplish brown. Median rectrices bronzy green; lateral ones blue-black.
Under tail-coverts green in the centre, the remaining parts greyish white. Bill black. ‘Total length
4 inches, wing 23, tail 1, culmen $.”

The Plate represents a male bird in two positions, and is drawn from the specimen in the Gould

collection.
[R. B. 8.]