EUTOXERES HETERURA, Gowa.

Keuadorean Sickle-bill.

Eutoxeres heterura, Gould, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) i. p. 455 (1868).—Elliot, Synopsis of
the Humming-Birds, p. 8 (1878).—Eudes-Deslongchamps, Annuaire Mus. d’Hist.
Nat. Caen, i. p: 73 (1881).

Grypus heterura, Gray, Hand-list of Birds, i. p. 1238, no. 1548 (1869).

 

Tus species is not very different from the Colombian Eutoweres aquila, which it replaces in Ecuador; but
the stripes on the breast seem to be always of a bright fulvous colour, instead of whitish as in the above-
mentioned bird.

The following remarks are quoted from my original paper on these birds :—‘‘I have for some time past
had reason to believe that the Humming-birds of this highly singular form comprised more species than the
two already described (Eutoweres aquila and E. Condamini) ; but it is only of late that I have acquired
sufficient materials to justify my arriving at any satisfactory conclusion on the subject. At this moment I
have before me three specimens of the true LZ. aquila from New Granada, seven skins of a bird from the
neighbourhood of Quito, which I consider to be distinct from that species, and three from Veragua, which
differ slightly from both.

‘ E. aquila is the largest species of the genus, and is distinguished by the snow-white shafts of its tail-
feathers, which doubtless show very conspicuously when the bird is on the wing and the tail widely spread ;
this character is found in every specimen I have examined, and, I believe, will prove constant. The Quitan
bird, like some of the Phaethornithes, is extremely variable in its markings; for instance, the tail, in some
specimens, has the tips of the feathers white for nearly half an inch from the tip, in others for a quarter, in
others, again, for an eighth; and I possess one in which the white tipping is absent, all the feathers being of
a uniform olive-grey; but in no instance that I have seen does the white extend down the shaft as in
E. aquila. On comparing the seven Quitan specimens with the Bogotan birds, I find that the striz on the
breast are black and white in the former, and black and buff in the latter. I shall designate the Quitan bird
E. heterura, with the following description :—

‘¢Upper mandible wholly black, under mandible yellow for two thirds of its length from the base, the
remainder olive-brown ; crown of the head nearly black, each feather glossed with green at the tip; upper
surface dull grass-green ; tail olive-grey, in some instances tipped with sullied white; wings deep purplish
black ; under surface, from the throat to the vent, striated with black and buff, the buff becoming lighter on
the centre of the abdomen ; under tail-coverts brown, varied with black. Total length 5 inches, bill 1, wing

2%, tail 27, tarsi +.

”