i @')

PHAETHORNIS NIGRICINCTUS, Lawr.

Belted Hermit.

Phe Ay . re . - . -
thornis nigricinctus, Lawr. in Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, vol. vi p. 260
° . ~ , . . . ~ .

 

No group of birds requires greater care in discriminatine ;
ae ae oe a eee its various members than the little Phaéthorni, of
great similarity of colour, it is most ne oe ae co se = - ca ee
are distributed over the wide area extending from Me . ; t wan oe ma
the Caraccas on the eastern part of the de eee ne = pe = NG
edd as toms, 2 | : America. iminutive as they all are, the present
Pen as ae - y fa lest of the group. I have long had a female specimen of this little
session, sent from the neig P : i Jeor ]
describing it until I had seen the male ges ee pre: ge oo ee
Mr. Lawrence of New York as the type of his hie Cae be eset — =
and my own have very lengthened bills with th al] ee aie oo eat ale
epee , 1e yellow colouring of the under mandible extending almost
to ce end, in which respect they differ from all the other members of the genus, and especially fark the
aie Ihave named P. Episcopus, but to which they are otherwise most nearly allied. Mr. Lawrence’s
specimen was collected by Mr. Moore while descending one of the tributaries of the Amazon from Quito to

Para: we may therefore 1 1 V
e I 7 ore l ifer ] j 5 i i
y nfer that the little-known countries of the Upper Amazon are its true habitat.

oe male hos the upper surface bright bronzy green, browner on the head; upper tail-coverts bright
ferruginous; tail bronzed coppery brown, the outer margin of the external feathers, the tips of the two
central feathers and the two next pairs on each side greyish white; wings purplish brown; under surface
deep rufous, with a broad purplish-black band across the breast ; ear-coverts black; above the eye a line of
rufous; upper mandible black ; lower mandible orange-red, becoming paler towards the extreme end.

The HEE is coppery bronze above; has the tail-feathers of a more lengthened and cuneate form and
largely tipped with buff; the whole of the under surface rich buff; under mandible, with the exception of

the extreme tip, yellow.

PHAETHORNIS EPISCOPUS, Gowda.

Bishop Hermit.

Phaéthornis Episcopus, Gould in Proce. of Zool. Soc., part xxv. p. 14.
The Little Brown Humming-bird, Edw. Nat. Hist. of Birds, vol.i. p. . pl. 32?

 

Ir will be seen that in this little section of the PAaéthorni the males of some of the species have their

breasts crossed by a distinct patch of lengthened purplish-black plumes, while in others no such mark

occurs in either sex: in no instance have I seen this peculiar character carried to so great an extent as in

the present bird, which I received direct from Demerara. It differs from the P. pygmaeus and the P. Eremita
greater breadth of the black pectoral band, in

There is a little bird figured and described in
r may not be the female

in the rich bronzy colouring of its upper surface and in the
the bronzy hue of its tail, and in the small size of its wings.
Edwards’s ‘« Natural History,” vol. i. pl. 32, said to be from Surinam, which may 0
of this species, and I merely refer to it to show that it had not escaped my attention; at the same time I
h species of these little birds it is intended to represent.
e a female of this species, also received from
fore call the attention of persons
ability of their sending additional

must observe, that it is impossible to say whic
Besides the male, I possess an example which I consider to b
Demerara. They are the only examples I have seen ; I would there
resident in the fine country of which the species is a native, to the desir

examples to Europe.

h golden bronze ; behind the eye a stripe of

The male has the head, upper surface, and wing-coverts ric
changing into rich brown near the apex,

buff; wings purplish brown ; tail deep bronzy brown at the base,
and slightly tipped with grey; rump rufous ; ear-coverts black; under surface deep sandy buff, crossed on

the breast by a broad band of purplish-black, somewhat elongated plumes; upper mandible and apical third

of the lower mandible black ; basal two-thirds of the latter yellow.
The female has a cuneate tail, largely tipped with buffy white, and the under surface rufous.