ADELOMYIA FLORICEPS, Gould.

Blossom-crown.

Trochilus (~—— *) floriceps, Gould in Proe. of Zool. Soe. 1853, p. 62. Reported in Athenzeum,
1853, p. 481.

Adelomyia floriceps, Bonap. Rey. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 253.
Metallura Jloriceps, Reichenb. Aufz. der Colibris, p. 8.

 

Tuts pretty little species, to which I have given the trivial name of Blossom-crown, is an inhabitant of
the great country of Columbia, and is one of the most recent discoveries made in that rich region. The
single specimen sent to me by M. Linden of Brussels had, I believe, been collected by his brother-in-law in
the neighbourhood of the Auruaco Village of San Antonia, on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Martha, in
lat. 10° 40’, long. 72°, at an elevation of 5000 feet ; and, so far as I am aware, is the only one that has yet
been procured. It appears to be fully adult, and has all the characteristics of the male sex. In giving a
figure of it thus early in my work, I am desirous, first, to make it generally known; and secondly, to
call the attention of collectors who may visit Santa Martha to the circumstance that examples of it are
among the desiderata of our cabinets.

I have placed this bird provisionally in the genus 4delomyia, because in its structure and colouring, except
in its lilaceous crown, it more closely assimilates to the 4. melanogenys than any other member of the
family.

Forehead buffy white, passing into a beautiful deep peach-blossom hue on the crown; throat grey, passing
into the rufous of the abdomen; wings purplish brown; middle tail-feathers bronzy; lateral tail-feathers
bronzy at the base, passing into purplish black, and largely tipped with buff; bill black; feet apparently
light brown.

The figures are of the size of life. The plant is the Zrstanthus acutangulus.