PTEROGLOSSUS STURMI, Natt.
Sturm’s Ara^ari.
S p e c i f i c C h a r a c t e r .
P te r . mandibula superiore sordide viridi-flava ; mandibula inferiore tota nigra ad apicem viridi-
J la va ; nucha, pectore, epigastrio uropygioque coccineis.
Crown of the head deep black; cheeks and throat chocolate-brown, bordered posteriorly with a
crescentic mark of chestnut-black, below which is a broader crescent of yellow; nape,
upper part of the back, the breast and the rump bright blood-red; back, wings and tail
dark olive-green; primaries brownish black, narrowly edged with olive-green; under
surface of the wings dull yellow; centre of the abdomen yellow; lower part of the
abdomen and under tail-coverts dull greyish yellow; thighs olive-green; upper mandible
dull greenish yellow, passing into bluish green at the base, becoming almost white on the
cutting edge, and having an oblong spot of black at each denticulation; under mandible
black except at the point, which is dull greenish yellow; raised band on the sides of
the mandibles at the base ocbreous yellow; irides dark brown ; orbits dark bluish grey,
bounded above by a streak of dull carmine-red ; legs and feet dark greyish green.
Total length, I 4 i inches; bill, 3 i ; wing, 5 ; tail, ; tarsi, If.
Pteroglossus Stuivnii, Natt. in Imp. Mus. of Vienna.—Sturm’s Edit, of Gould’s Mon. of Ramph.,
p i .
T h e solitary example of this fine species contained in the Imperial Museum at Vienna is the only one that
has yet been sent to Europe. It was brought down by the late Mr. John Natterer, on the 22nd of January,
1830, out of a small flock flying in the primitive forests at Borba near the mouth of the Rio Madeira. It
proved to be a fine male in the adult dress, and, after his return to Europe, was named by him Pteroglossus
Sturmii, in honour of one or other of the brothers Sturm of Nuremberg, who have included a figure and
description of it in their translation of the first edition of this work. As I have never seen the bird myself
I have been obliged to copy their figure, and it is only fair to them to give their remarks upon its alliance,
and the differences by which it is distinguished.
“ This species differs from the very similar Pteroglossus bitorquatus in having the under mandible entirely
black, instead of black with a white base; in having a dark brown iris instead of orange with a black spot on
each side near its inner margin; in the orbits being dark blue grey, with a border of dull carmine-red near
the feathers of the crown instead of the eye-rings being grey, and the remainder of the orbits beautifully
mingled carmine and vermilion; and in the pale yellow crescentic mark on the breast, which does not exist
in the male P. bitorquatus, and which is narrower and of a brighter yellow in the female of that species. The
reasons which induced M. Natterer to regard this bird, of which it is true he had only received a single
specimen, as distinct, was the circumstance of its being a fully adult bird, and that in the case of several
other species, as the Pteroglossi maculirostris, Gouldi, Nattereri, Langsdorjji, Reinwardti, the specific
distinctions reside almost exclusively in the beak.”
The figure is of the size of life.