CAM FYW T EM IS infFEKTllllMTS. Cd.
JhUmanMlIfoUM', /"V
JGeaUt omlHCJhditer.del et/ Heb
CAMPYLOPTERUS HYPERYTHRUS, Cab.
Rufous-breasted Sabre-wing.
Campylopterus hyperythrus, Cabanis in Rich. Schomb. Reisen in Brit. Guiana, 1848, vol. iii.
p. 709, No. 202.
Takui, of the Arekuna Indians, Schomb.
W e are indebted to the researches of the Chevalier Schomburgk for the discovery of this new species of
Campylopterus, of which the single specimen he procured—an adult male—now graces the collection of the
Museum at Berlin; and I would here beg to record my thanks to Dr. Lichtenstein, the Director of that
Institution, for bis kindness in permitting this rare bird to be removed to London, for the purpose of its
being described and figured in the present work. It was discovered on the Roraima Mountains, in the
interior of Guiana, at an elevation of 6000 feet above the level of the sea, where it was busily engaged in
procuring its food among the flowering bushes of Mimosa, and other plants of that region. It is a stout
thick-set species, with a much shorter bill and wings than the Campylopterus rufus; has the colouring of the
under surface of a much darker hue than in that species; the four central tail-feathers more golden, and
the three lateral feathers on each side uniform rufous, without a tracé of the black bar so conspicuous in
its near ally.
Head, upper surface, and wing-coverts bronzy green; four central tail-feathers golden bronze, both on
their upper and under surface; three lateral feathers on each side uniform rufous; wings purplish brown ;
all the under surface dark rust-red ; bill black, except the basal half of the under mandible, which is fleshy
brown; feet dark brown.
The figures are of the natural size, on a beautiful Clitoria, copied from an unpublished drawing made in
Guiana.