THRENETES LEUCURUS.
White-tailed Barbed-throat.

 

Trochilus leucurus, Linn. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p- 190.—Ib. Gmel. Edit., vol. i p. 487.—Latl
: : oS) i. . . ath.

Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 307.—Less. Hist. Nat. des Col., p. 83. pl. 22.—Vieill. Eney.
Méth. Orn., part i. p. 553. pl. 129. fig. 5—Dumont, Dict. des Sei. Nat., tom. _
p. 92.—Drapiez, Dict. Class. d’Hist. Nat., tom. iv. p: 317.

Polytmus Surinamensis, Briss. Orn., vol. iii. p: 674.—Id. 8vo, vol. ii. p: 22.

Colibri a Collier rouge, Buff. Hist. des Ois., tom. vi. p- 59.—Ib. Pl. Enl. 600. fig. 4.—Vieill
Ois. dor., tom. i. p. 128. : ?

White-tailed Humming-Bird, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. ii. p. 757.—Edw., pl. 256. fig. 2.—Shaw,
Gen. Zool., vol. vii. p. 293.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p- 308. :

Rufous-throated Humming-Bird, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 308.

Polytmus leucurus, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 108, Polytmus, sp. 21.

Glaucis leucurus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 67, Glaucis, sp. 2.

 

Tuar the present species was known to Linneus, and to most of the writers on Natural History who lived
prior to that great Naturalist, is quite certain; yet at the present day how few are the examples of it to be
met with in the collections of Europe! It is undoubtedly a native of Surinam and the neighbouring conti-
nental states ; and it is very surprising that so ornamental and well-marked a species should not have more
frequently attracted the collector’s notice, and been sent home in abundance. Judging from the specimens
I have had opportunities of examining, there would appear to be little difference in the colouring of the
sexes. In its form and structure, this species offers, in my opinion, considerable affinity to the members of
the genus Glaucis, which also tenant the same regions, and display very similar habits.

M. Bourcier tells me that it has also been sent from British Guiana, but that it rarely occurs in collec-

tions from Cayenne.

Head, all the upper surface, upper wing-coverts, two central tail-feathers, sides of the neck, breast and
flanks, shining olive-green ; wings purplish brown ; lateral tail-feathers white, stained on the apical half of
the outer margin and the tip of the outer feather with dark brown ; a crescent of the same, but of a much

paler hue at the tip of the next; a still fainter mark of the same colour near the tip of the external web of

the third, and a nearly obsolete
on the chin and throat a lengthened triangular mark of black, bounded on either side by a

1 below by a broad band of deep sandy buff crossing the throat; centre
overts olive, narrowly edged with greyish buff; bill black,

mark of a similar tint in the same situation on the fourth; lores and ear-

coverts brown ;
narrow line of greyish white, anc
of the abdomen greyish buff; under tail-c
with the cutting of the upper mandible and the basal three-fourths of the under one pearly white ; feet
yellow.

The figures are of the natural size.