GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill subulate or awl-shaped; filiform, tubular at the tip, longer than the head: upper mandible forming a sheath for the lower. Tongue filiform, the two threads coalescing and tubular: feet formed for walking: tail composed of ten feathers in general.
** Bill straight.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Golden green, beneath glossy brown, crest rufous; and on each side, below the ears, a tuft of elongated rufous feathers with a green spot at the tip of each.
Trochilus Ornatus: viridi aureus, subtus-nitente fuscus crista rufo: infra aures utrinque pennis elongatis rufis apice macula viridi.
Trochilus Ornatus: viridi-aureus, subtus nitente-fuscus, fascia uropygio alba, crista (in mare) verticis et fasciculo pennarum infra aures utrinque rufo.—Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. T. 1. p. 497. n. 58.
Trochilus Ornatus: viridi-aureus subtus fusco-aureus, crista rufa abdomine infimo vittaque transversa uropygii albis, infra aures utrinque pennis 6 s. 7 elongatis rufis apice macula viridi.—Lath. Ind. Orn. 318. 58.
Hupecol Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois. 6. p. 18.
Oiseau Mouche, dit Hupecol de Cayenne.—Buff. Pl. enl. n. 640. f. 3.
Tufted-Necked Humming Bird.—Lath. Gen. Syn. 2 p. 784. 55.
The Tufted-Neck Humming Bird described by Buffon under the name of l’Oiseau-Mouche de Cayenne, Le Hupecol de Cayenne, differs in no respect that we perceive from the bird before us; and for this reason we can have no hesitation in considering it as an individual of the same species. Our specimen is not from Cayenne, it was brought from New Zealand, and was one among the number of those rarieties collected in that island by the celebrated Navigator Captain Cook, in his first voyage round the world: that in which he was accompanied by Sir Joseph Banks, and Dr. Solander. The New Zealand specimen, though it nearly accords with the bird described by Buffon under the name of Hupecol de Cayenne, does not entirely agree with the description given of that species by Dr. Latham: it differs in wanting the white band on the rump, and the patch or space of the same colour on the lower region of the belly. Buffon speaks of such a characteristic mark of white on the rump, but not the abdomen of the Cayenne kind.[[17]] And it is not unlikely that these appearances may be indications only of a change in plumage, as the same circumstance is not unfrequently observed in many other birds at particular seasons, or in certain states of moulting. Dr. Latham himself observes that in the female these marks, instead of being white, incline to rufous, and this, no doubt, in the adult bird. There is certainly no appearance of white either upon the rump or region of the belly in the bird before us; and this example bears every appearance of having arrived at its full maturity of plumage. Perhaps the bird from Cayenne having a white band on the rump and abdomen, may be, however, if not a distinct variety, the more mature bird of the same species as that met with by our circumnavigators at New Zealand.
There are species of this tribe more brilliant in colour and more richly varied in the disposition of those colours, but assuredly none more singular or pleasing in general aspect than the bird before us. In point of size the Tufted Humming Bird is one of the smallest species of its family, scarcely exceeding in that respect the figure delineated in the plate, for its total length is not above three inches, and its bulk proportionate. The head and upper part of the body, and also the wings above, are green with a golden lustre; the tail greenish, changeable to testaceous golden brown, and having the inner webs rufous. The throat is of a fine green colour, variable in different lights to a golden hue with a yellow or a brown metallic lustre, and below that the whole of the belly is a rich brown glossed with green and golden. On the head of the male bird is a crest of pointed feathers of an orange or testaceous brown colour, and on each side of the neck a tuft composed of elongated feathers, differing in length, and having the tips of a dark but brilliant green. These feathers the little creature has the power of raising or depressing at pleasure: when these are displayed in full array on each side of the green patch on the front of the neck, and the crest stands erect, which is invariably the case when the bird is offended or surprised, the appearance of this bird is altogether remarkable. The female has neither the ruff on the neck nor the crest, and its colours are in general more obscure than in the male. The bill is of a moderate length and straight, the legs very short and the feet diminutive.[[18]]
In the annexed plate this elegant little bird is seen perched upon a tuft of the
JACQUINIA AURANTIA, the AUSTRALASIAN
ORANGE JACQUINIA,
in blossom; a plant that inhabits the New Holland and New Zealand, and which flowered in the month of July in the present year, at Kew.
26
London. Published as the Act directs by E. Donovan & Mess.rs Simpkin & Marshall Dec.r 1, 1822.