THAUMATIAS BREVIROSTRIS.

Short-billed Emerald.

Ornismya brevirostris, Less. Hist. Nat. des Ois. Mou., pp- xxxv et 211. p. 77.—Less. Traité
d’Orn., p. 283.

Basilinna brevirostris, Less. Ind. Gen. et Syn. des Ois. duGenre Trochilus, p.xxvi.—lb. Rev. Zool.
1839, p. 15.

Polytmus brevirostris, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p- 108, Polytmus, sp. 44.

Thaumatias brevirostris, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 78, Thaumatias, sp. 2.

Thaumantias brevirostris, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 255.

Agyrtria brevirostris, Reichenb. Aufz. der Colibris, p. 10.

 

Ir is extremely difficult to determine with certainty what species of Humming Birds some of the Plates of
the older and even of the recent writers are intended to represent. One of the figures to which this remark
applies, is that of the Ornismya brevirostris of Lesson’s “ Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux Mouches.” If
the bill of the bird there figured be drawn of the right length, then the bird represented must be the
common species so frequently sent to London and Paris from Rio de Janeiro; but if the locality there
given, Guiana, be correct, then the Plate is intended to represent some other species, as the bird found at
Rio is never seen in that country. The colouring and description given by Lesson, too, are so vague
and unsatisfactory, that they further perplex rather than assist in a solution of the difficulty ; without
rejecting, then, the name of drevirostris altogether, I think it will be best to consider it as referable to the
Brazilian bird alone, and that the locality of Guana is an error, which, it is much to be regretted, has been
repeated in most of the published arrangements of the family.

The two figures in my Plate are copied from specimens collected in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro,
where, as a note from Mr. Reeves informs me, the species is not common; but at Novo Friburgo, about
seventy miles from the city, it is abundant.

The nest is a small round cup-shaped structure, composed of soft cottony materials, and decorated
externally with the involucres of composite plants; long shred-like dangling pieces of bark and leaves
attached round the rim and to the sides with the finest cobwebs,—so fine, in fact, as to be imperceptible to
the naked eye. The eggs, as usual, are two in number, and of a spotless white.

The local name of the bird at Rio is Avikri branco. Its cry, which is very loud, resembles Peckér,

Peckér, Tutzie.

Crown of the head, all the upper surface, wing-coverts, sides of the neck and breast, and the flanks
greenish-bronze; wings purplish brown; two central tail-feathers bronzy green; the remainder bronzy
brown, with dusky tips; centre of the throat and abdomen white; under tail-coverts pale bronzy brown,
edged with greyish white; upper mandible black ; under mandible flesh-colour ; feet fleshy brown.

The figures are of the natural size.