much smaller, more linear, and nearly equal in width (about that of inner web of the fourth), so that the interval between the fifth and fourth is from two to five times as great as that between the fifth and sixth. The inner web of these reduced primaries is also emarginated at the end. This character is even sometimes seen in the females, but to a less extent, and may serve to distinguish both colubris and alexandri from other allied species where other marks are obscured.
The following diagnosis will serve to distinguish the species found in the United States:—
Common Characters. Above and on the sides metallic green. A ruff of metallic feathers from the bill to the breast, behind which is a whitish collar, confluent with a narrow abdominal stripe; a white spot behind the eye. Tail-feathers without light margins.
Tail deeply forked (.30 of an inch). Throat bright coppery-red from the chin. Tail of female rounded, emarginated … T. colubris.
Larger. Tail slightly forked (.10 of an inch). Throat gorget with violet, steel, green, or blue reflections behind; anteriorly opaque velvety-black. Tail of female graduated; scarcely emarginated … T. alexandri.
Trochilus colubris, Linnæus.
RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD.
Trochilus colubris, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 191.—Wilson, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 26, pl. x.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 248, pl. xlvii.—Ib. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 190, pl. ccliii.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 131.—Max. Cab. J. VI, 154.—Samuels, 111.—Allen, B. Fla. 301. Ornisyma colubris, Deville, Rev. et Mag. Zool. May, 1852 (habits). Trochilus aureigaster, Lawrence (alcoholic specimens).
Sp. Char. Tail in the male deeply forked; the feathers all narrow lanceolate-acute. In the female slightly rounded and emarginate; the feathers broader, though pointed. Male, uniform metallic green above; a ruby-red gorget (blackish near the bill), with no conspicuous ruff; a white collar on the jugulum; sides of body greenish; tail-feathers uniformly brownish-violet. Female, without the red on the throat; the tail rounded and emarginate, the inner feathers shorter than the outer; the tail-feathers banded with black, and the outer tipped with white; no rufous or cinnamon on the tail in either sex. Length, 3.25; wing, 1.60; tail, 1.25; bill, .65. Young males are like the females; the throat usually spotted, sometimes with red; the tail is, in shape, more like that of the old male.
Hab. Eastern North America to the high Central Plains; south to Brazil. Localities: Cordova (Scl. P. Z. S. 1856, 288); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 129); Cuba (Cab. J. IV, 98; Gundl. Rep. I, 1866, 291); S. E. Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 470, breeds); Veragua (Salv. P. Z. S. 1870, 208).