PANOPLITES FLAVESCENS .
Yellow-fronted Panoplites.
Trochïlus Jlavescens, Lodd. in Proc. of Comm. Sci. and Corr. of Zool. Soc., Part xi. p. 7.
Ornismia paradisea, Boiss. Rev. Zool. 1840, p. 6.
Mellisuga flavèscens, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 112, Mellisnga, sp. 26.
Amazilius Jlavescens, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 78, Amazilius, sp. 9-
Clytolcema Jlavescens, Bonap. Consp. Troch. in Rev. et Mag. de Zool., 1854, p. 254.
I n all probability the first example of tliis bird which reached this country was the one forwarded to ine
direct from Popayan in 1830. It was from this specimen that Mr. Loddigcs took his description of the
species, which appeared in the Proceedings of the Committee of Science and Correspondence of the
Zoological Society for 1832. That the bird enjoys a wide range of habitat is evidenced by the circum-
stance of its being found in more or less abundante in various and distant localities along the line of the
Western Andes: thus, as already mentioned, I have myself received it from Popayan ; M. Bourcier met with
it in Ecuador; it is one of the commonest of the numerous species sent from BogOta ; and that it inhabits
countries still farther north, we know from the circumstance of M. Warszewicz having collected specimens
near the Isthmus of Panama. Mr. Mark, Her Majesty’s Consul at Bogota, informs me that it is found
about two days’ journey from that city, particularly near the villages of Guaduas and Fusugasuga, and that
it is very generally dispersed over this elevated region at au altitude of from three thousand five hundred
to six thousand feet above the sea level, where the thermometer ranges from seventy to eighty degrees.
The Panoplites flatescens is one of the commonest of the Andean Humming Birds that is sent to Europe.
Differences occasionally occur in the colouring of the specimens we receive, some having the crown and
throat splendid metallic greenish yellow, relieved by a darker olive-greeu hue on the neck and chest,
and other specimens, probably younger birds, having a lighter and more uniform cast of plumage. In
form the bird is precisely like the P. Jardini, and, as will be seen on comparing the figures of the two
species, lias a similarly marked and lightly coloured tail. I have not been able to detect any difference in
the colouring of the sexes, and I believe they are only to be distinguished by actual dissection.
Crown of the head and throat luminous yellowish green; plumage of the upper and under surface and
wing-coverts dark green ; wings brownish purple ; under surface of the shoulder and the axilke rufous ;
vent buffy white; thighs clothed with somewhat lengthened white feathers; central tail-feathers greenish
bronze, the remainder delicate buff, broadly margined externally and round the tip with greenish bronze ;
bill black.
The figures are of the natural size.