EKUSTEPHANUS FERNANDENSIS.
Cinnamon Fire Crown.

7 hochi Us ernan 270 32 3 Ka 12 m Pro f 5 I j S | 3)
] fk de Sts l I (, ©) j 1 :
ee Robinson, Less. Ois. Mou. V elins pl
ee,

Ornismya cinnamomea, Gerv. Mae. de Z,

. 4.—De Latt. et Less. Rev. Zool. 1839, p- 18.

, . | n. of Birds, vol. i. p: Lis; Melhisuga, sp. 95.
Sephanoides fernandensis, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Ay }
Ay.,

Mellisuga Fernandensis, Gray and Mitch. Ge

mn p. 82, Sephanoides, sp. 3.—Ib. Cons
l'roch. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 256. | onsp.

Faminrar as is the name of the island of Juan Fernande? er ita i
: andez to ey ery one, it 1s not, I believe, generally known,

| a n this isolated spot are three beautiful species of
Humming Birds, viz. Lustephanus Fernandensis, E. Stokesi, and E. galeritus; of these, the present bird is
the largest in size, and is moreover rendered peculiarly conspic

that almost the only feathered inhabitants which enliye

| mee il age tious, not only among its immediate con-
reners, but amidst the entire family, by the uniform cinn: ee :
g , é amily, by the uniform cinnamon hue of its plumage, relieved

alone by the
flame-coloured crown.

Captain P. P. King, R.N., was the first who brought specimens to Europe, and gave a name to the bird ;
consequently, the term /ernandensis, proposed by him, has the priority over those of eiznamomea and Robin-
son, bestowed by the French naturalists Gervais and Lesson.

From abont 1825, when Captain King procured his examples, up to the present time, 1854, no additional
specimens had been received; Mr. Bridges, however, has recently visited Juan Fernandez, and the result of
his explorations is the transmission of thirty fine specimens. These are all precisely alike; are we then to
conclude that they are all males, or, that both sexes, when adult, are alike in colour, and the female deco-
rated with the brilliant crown as well as the male? I have seen one specimen in which the brilliant crown
was absent, but I had no means of ascertaining whether this was a young male, or a female ; judging from
analogy, I should have supposed that the females were destitute of this ornament, and if so, all the specimens
sent by Mr. Bridges must be males.

Mr. Cuming informs me, that so fearless of man is this fine bird, that a gun is not necessary to procure

examples, as it approaches so close that it may be readily killed with a stick.

Forehead and crown metallic fiery red; the entire plumage of the body and the tail-feathers deep cinna-
mon-red ; wing-coverts the same, the lesser ones glossed with green and the greater passing into purple at
the tip; spurious wing green; primaries and secondaries purplish brown; vent buffy white ; bill black.

The figures represent the bird of the natural size, on the Thyrsopteris elegans of Kunze, a tree-fern of the

island of Juan Fernandez.