Plate CCCLXXIX. Male and Female.
Male with the upper parts bright cinnamon or reddish-orange, the head bronzed green, the wings dusky purple, their coverts glossed with green; each of the tail-feathers with a narrow, longitudinal, lanceolate, median streak toward the end; loral space, a narrow band over the eye, another beneath it, and auricular, orange-red; scale-like feathers of the throat and sides of the neck splendent, fire-red, changing to purplish-red, yellowish-red, greenish-yellow, or yellowish-green; behind them on the fore neck a broad band of reddish-white; the rest of the lower parts like the upper, the abdomen inclining to white. Female with the upper parts gold-green, the head inclining to brown; wings as in the male; tail-feathers orange-red at the base, brownish-black toward the end, the tip white; lower parts white, tinged with rufous, especially the sides; throat with roundish spots of metallic greenish-red.
Male, 37/12, wing, 17¼/12.
From California along the north-west coast to Nootka Sound. Abundant. Migratory.
Trochilus rufus, Gmel. Syst. Nat. v. i. p. 497.
Trochilus (Selasphorus) rufus, Cinnamon or Nootka Humming Bird, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 324.
Ruffed-necked Humming Bird, Trochilus rufus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iv. p. 555.
FAMILY XXV. ALCEDINÆ. KINGFISHERS.
Bill long, straight, stout, broader than high at the base, much compressed, tapering to a rather acute point, and gape-line commencing beneath the middle of the eyes. Head large, ovato-oblong; neck short; body stout. Tarsus extremely short; anteriorly scaly; anterior toes united for more than half their length, outer longer than inner, hind toe small. Claws stout, compressed, arched, very acute. Plumage rather compact. Wings rather long, pointed. Tail various, of twelve feathers. Tongue very short, fleshy, with the sides parallel, the tip tapering to a bluntish point. Roof of upper mandible moderately concave, with a median ridge and oblique lateral grooves. Œsophagus very wide, without crop; stomach very large, round, with its muscular coat very thin; the epithelium dense, very thin, with tortuous rugæ; intestine very long, extremely slender; no cœca; cloaca very large, globular. Trachea with three pairs of inferior laryngeal muscles.
GENUS I. ALCEDO, Linn. KINGFISHER.
Bill long, straight, rather stout, broader than high at the base, but suddenly much compressed, and tapering to an acute point; upper mandible with the dorsal line almost straight, the ridge distinct, but somewhat flattened, the edges nearly straight, without notch, the tip acute; lower mandible with the angle of moderate length and narrow, the dorsal line ascending and nearly straight; gape-line commencing beneath the middle of the eye; nostrils basal, near the ridge, linear, obliquely ascending, half closed by a bare membrane. Head large, oblong; neck short; body robust. Feet very short; tarsus extremely short, roundish, anteriorly faintly scaly; anterior toes cohered for a great part of the length, outer longer than inner, first small. Claws rather short, stout, arched, acute. Plumage rather compact, more blended above. Wings long, pointed, with the second and third quills longest. Tail short, even, of twelve rounded feathers.
255. 1. Alcedo Alcyon, Linn. Belted Kingfisher.