CALOTHORAX EVELYNJE.
Bahama Wood-star.
Trochilus Evehjna, Bourc. Proc. Zool. Soc., part xv. p. 44.— lb. Rev. Zool. 1847, p. 256.
Calothorax Evelynce, Gray and Mitch. Gen. o f Birds, vol. i. p. 110, Calothorax, sp. 9.
Evelina, Reich. Auf. der Col., p. 13.— Ib. Troch. Enum., p. 10.
Callothoracc evillina, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 257,
Trochilus Bahamensis, Bryant, List o f Birds seen at the Bahamas, &c., p. 5.
To be aware of the existence of. a Humming-Bird on the principal of the Bahama Islands, and to fail in every
attempt to procure a specimen of it during a period of thirty long years, seems scarcely possible, nevertheless
such has been the case. Through the instrumentality of a friend at Liverpool, the late Mr. Swainson
procured a male from New Providence about thirty years ago, and presented it to the late Mr. George
Loddiges; from that date the bird appears not to have been noticed by any traveller or naturalist until 1859,
when it was observed by Dr. Bryant during his four months’ sojourn in the neighbourhood of Nassau in New
Providence. It will be seen from the following note that it is by no means rare on at least the principal
island of the Bahama group; indeed it would seem to be even more numerous than is usual with the other
members of the group. I am very much indebted to my friend George N. Lawrence, Esq., of New York, for
the loan of the two 'specimens of each sex for the purpose of the accompanying illustration, both of which
were collected by Dr. Bryant, to whom much credit is due for the masterly manner in which he has
described the birds of that little-known group of islands, the Bahamas. I regret exceedingly to be obliged
to reduce the specific name of Bahamensis assigned to the bird by this gentleman to the rank of a synonym •
but I have no alternative, that of Evelynce having been given to it some years before by M. Bourcier,
when describing some of the rarities contained in the Loddigesian collection.
The Bahama Wood-star may be ranked among the most beautiful members of its genus; but few of them
possessing greater elegance of form, and certainly none a more lovely-coloured throat.
I append Dr. Bryant’s observations on the bird, together with his description:—
“ This species of Humming-Bird is the only one found at Nassau and neighbouring islands. It is:quite
abundant there, and a constant resident. All the specimens I procured, seven in number, were killed in
February and the early part of March; at that time its food consisted almost entirely of a small green aphis,
found abundantly on the West Indian vervain {V. Stachytarphetd), a small blue flower that grows in all the
dry pastures. Gosse calls the least Humming-Bird of Jamaica the Vervain Humming-Bird, from its hovering
round this plant; but the name would apply equally as well to the present species. I saw nothing in its habits
differing from those of the common ruby-throated species, with the exception that it was more quarrelsome
in its disposition, chasing the * fighter,’ as the Tyrannus caudifasciatits is called, whenever it came near him,
and that its note is louder and shriller, and much more frequently uttered. Incubation commences by the
1st of March. I saw three nests of this bird: one, found on the 3rd of March, contained two eggs partly
hatched ; a second, April 10th, one egg ; and another in May, two eggs. The nests are all composed of the
same materials, principally the cotton from the silk cotton-tree, with a few downy masses that looked as if
derived from some species of Asclepias; this was felted and matted together, and the outside stuck over with
bits of lichen and little dry stalks or fibres of vegetable matter: one now before me measures ‘030 in
diameter and ‘033 in height externally, and the inside *018 in depth and ‘025 in diameter. The eggs,
like those of all the other members of the family, are two in number, snow-white when blown, and slightly
rosy before, and measure ‘012 in length by ‘008 in breadth.
“ Description.—Adult male :—Above, green with metallic reflexions, slightly golden on the back, and
with the tips of some of the feathers in some specimens bluish; the head darker and more sombre; wings
brownish purple, with dull greenish reflexions in some lights; tail dark purple, almost black, also with
greenish reflexions ; the outer feather on each side with an almost obsolete terminal spot of rufous, the next
with the whole of the inner web bright cinnamon, the next again with the whole of the inner and the basal
half of the outer web of the same colour, this colour then running nearly to the tip in a diagonal manner,
leaving the part next the shaft purple; the basal half of all the shafts, except the two outer, cinnamon ;
throat magnificent purple-violet; immediately below this a broad gorget of white; abdomen green mixed
with rufous; thighs white ; crissum pale rufous white; bill and tarsi black.