PHAËTHORNI S OBSCURA, Gouid.
Obscure Hermit.
P h a ë th o rn is o b scu ra , Gould in Proc. o f Zool. Soc., part xxv. p. 14.
It can scarcely be supposed but tbat tbe great country of Brazil will, from time to time, present us with
new species o f this group o f birds; the great and almost interminable forests, particularly those toward the
western frontier, having been but partially traversed, and by no means closely investigated. By the way of
Rio de Janeiro, several examples o f this new Phaéthornis have reached Europe, and at this moment four
specimens are before me, two o f which belong to my own collection, the other two to that of M. Bourcier
o f Paris, by whom they have been kindly lent to me for the purposes o f the present work: the whole o f them
were collected in the interior of Brazil.
The Phaethornis obscura differs from all its congeners in its dark, clouded style of colouring, and in the
absence o f buff on the rump. It belongs to that division o f the Hermits to which the name o f Pygmomis
has been given, and which, although I have not adopted this generic appellation, appears to me to constitute
a very natural section o f the group. If we may judge from what we know o f some other members o f the
genus, the males o f this species will have shorter and more rounded tails than the females ; but this must
be verified by actual dissection before it can be positively affirmed.
Head, upper surface and wing-coverts dark bronzy green ; stripe behind the eye buff; wings purplish
brown; tail dark bronzy brown, each feather narrowly margined externally and slightly tipped with white;
throat smoky black, between which and the eye is a stripe o f light buff; chest clouded chestnut or coffee-
colour, passing into dark grey on the abdomen, and fading into white on the vent; under tail-coverts greyish
white ; upper mandible and tip o f the lower black; basal three-fourths o f the latter yellow.
The figures are o f the natural size. The plant is the Echites Franciscea.