HELOISA’S HUMMING-BIRD.
Ornysmya heloisa, Lesson & Delattre, Rev. Zoöl. 1838, 15 (Xalapa). Mellisuga heloisa, Gray & Mitchell, Gen. Birds, I, 113. Tryphæna heloisa, Bonap. Consp. Troch. Rev. Mag. Zoöl. 1854, 257. Selasphorus heloisæ, Gould, Mon. Trochil. III, pl. cxli. Atthis heloisæ, Reich. Cab. Jour. extraheft, 1853, App. 12.—Gould, Introd. Trochil. 1861, 89.—Elliot, Illust. Birds N. Am. I, xxi, XII, plate.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 361.
Sp. Char. Male. Above metallic green with golden reflections; beneath white; the sides of breast glossed with green; the flanks with rufous, which tinges the crissum very faintly; gorget brilliant violet or light purplish-red, bordered behind by clear white. All the tail-feathers rufous-cinnamon for basal half; the three outer black centrally and tipped with white (mixed with reddish on the third); the fourth green, centrally tipped with black; the central entirely green for the exposed portion, perhaps glossed with blackish at the end. Length, 2.70; wing, 1.35; tail, 1.00; exposed part of bill above, .45. Female. Outer primary not attenuated. Colors similar to male, wanting the metallic gorget; the feathers spotted with dusky; crissum and flanks more rufous; innermost tail-feathers entirely green; other feathers as in male, but with the central black encroaching on the basal rufous; third and fourth feathers tipped with reddish-white.
Hab. Southern New Mexico and Texas, to Guatemala.
The introduction of this species into the fauna of the United States is based on a female specimen collected by Mr. J. H. Clark at El Paso, Texas, and for a time supposed to be Selasphorus rufus, but after a careful examination by Mr. Lawrence, pronounced to belong to this species. Its range is southward along the highlands to Guatemala.
The species is very much like Selasphorus in shape, and hardly differs more than S. rufus and platycercus do from each other. The male is easily distinguished from its allies; the females are closely related to those of rufus, differing in much shorter bill (.55 to .65), much less rufous on the more nearly even tail, with broader feathers, etc.
Habits. This species claims a place within the fauna of North America, probably only as an accidental visitor, on the ground of a single specimen,—a female, taken by Mr. J. H. Clark at El Paso, Texas. It was at first mistaken for Selasphorus rufus. It is a Mexican and Central American species, ranging throughout the highlands at least as far to the south as Guatemala, where it was taken by Mr. Salvin.
It was first discovered on the highlands of Mexico by Mr. Delattre, who procured his specimens between Jalapa and Quatepu. It is crepuscular in its habits, collecting its food only in the morning or in the evening. Mr. Delattre states that the male bird is known to rise very early in the morning, and is never seen in quest of food later than nine in the forenoon. It very seldom goes to any distance from its mate or young, seeming to prefer to frequent the flowers in the edge of forests, but does not disdain those of the open fields. Mr. Salvin received specimens of this species taken in a
place called Chimachoyo near Calderas, in the Volcan de Fuego, and other specimens taken in the tierra caliente, near Coban, showing that, like many other species, it is found in very different climates.