and a long time will probably elapse before we are made acquainted with the peculiar purpose for which
its curiously-formed bill is adapted.
M. Bourcier considers that the Ornismya avocetta of M. Lesson is the young of this species ; in which
opinion I coincide; but I believe that the specimen from which M. Lesson’s figure was taken had the tail
of some other species surreptitiously appended to it instead of its own.
M. Bourcier informs me, that the Avocettula recurvirostris is found in Cayenne, that it is rare there, and
that the chasseurs only meet with it in the interior of the great forests, where it lives isolated.
The male has the whole of the upper surface, abdomen, and under tail-coverts golden-green; throat and
breast shining emerald-green; down the centre of the abdomeu a stripe of black; wings dark purplish-
black ; thighs white ; two centre tail-feathers greenish-blue, the remainder coppery-brown, margined on the’
basal half of the external web with bronzy-green; under surface of all the tail-feathers rich, shining, fiery
copper colour; bill and feet blackish-brown.
At a younger age the colouring of the body and wings is very similar, but the tail is bronzy-purple,
tipped with white.
In another state, which may be that of the female or a young bird of the year, the centre of the throat
and abdomen is brownish-black, bounded on each side from the angle of the mouth with an irregular streak
of white ; the tail dark purple, glossed with green, and the lateral feathers, particularly the outer ones,
largely tipped with white.
The figures represent a fully adult male and a female, or young bird of the year, of the size of life. The
plant is the Tweedia versicolor.