QREOTROCBIILÜS MELAFO GASTER, Qmtd.
JGoutót&vlJfCTiichUr, tUl. r/ h/Ji
OREOTROCHILUS MELANOGASTER, Gouid.
Black-breasted Hill-star.
Oreotrochilus melanogaster, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xv. p. 10.—Gray and Mitch. Gen.
of Btrds, vol. i. p. 104, Oreotrochiha, sp. 5.—Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 76, Oreotrochilus,
sp. 6. lleich. Aufz. der Col., p. 15.—Bonap. Rev. Zool. 1854, p. 250.
No species of this well-defined group of Humming-birds is so rare in the collections of Europe as the
Oreotrochilus melanogaster: a circumstance which is due to the fact of the country of which it is a native
beiug more unfrequently visited than those inhabited by the other species. Ecuador, as is well known, is
the true habitat of the O. Pichincha and O. Chimborasso, both of which species are named after the volcanic
mountains they respectively frequent; O. EsteUce and O. Adelce are found in Bolivia; O. leucopleurus in
Chili, and the present species in Peru. AU these species inhabit countries of great elevation, and are
mostly conüned to very limited areas. The Oreotrochili may truly be considered to constitute one of the
best defined genera of the great family of the Trochxlidce, and to rank among the finest of the Humming-
birds. A splendid specimen of the O. melanogaster graces the coUection of the late Mr. George Loddigcs,
and two are contained in my own: all of these were procured in Peru, but in what precise locality is
unknown. The whole of them are males, and, so far as I am aware, no female has yet reached Europe.
All the upper suriace olive-brown with a golden lustre, and washed with green on the upper tail-coverts;
wings greyish brown with purple reilexions; throat rich lustrous grass-green; breast and abdomen rich
deep bluish black ; flanks rusty brown ; tail green, with bronze reilexions; bill black; feet olive-black.
The iigures are of the size of lifè. The plant is the Fuchsia spectabilis.