GLAUCIS MELANURA, Gowa.

Black-tailed Hermit.

Glaucis melanura, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xxvii. p. 304.

 

Tue bird figured in the accompanying Plate must not be confounded with either of the species I have men-
tioned in my account of Glaucis hirsutus ; it is much smaller than either of them, and moreover has a far
greater amount of black colouring in its tail—the extreme base, and that only of the inner webs of the
feathers, being marked with chestnut; in fact, when the tail is closed and viewed from beneath, it appears to
be entirely black, the under coverts concealing the buff colouring at its base.

I possess two specimens of this bird, one of which was received from the Napo, the other, a very fine
one, from the Rio Negro.

Centre of the throat, chest, and under surface buff; a streak of dark brown passes downwards from the
base of the lower mandible, between which and the ear-coverts is a stripe of buff; there is also a line of
buff behind the eye; crown of the head brown ; back of the neck, upper surface, and two middle tail-feathers
golden-green ; upper tail-coverts narrowly edged with grey; basal portion of the inner webs and the shafts
of the four lateral tail-feathers rich reddish-buff approaching to chestnut, the remainder of these feathers
being black, tipped with white ; bill black, except the under base of the mandible, which is yellow.

The figures in the accompanying Plate are as near the size of life as possible. The plant is the Sipho-

campylus Orbignianus.