EUCEPHALA C^ERU LEO-LAY AT A, Gould.
Reeves’s Sapphire.
Eucephala cceruleo-lavata, Gould in Proc. o f Zool. Soe., p a rt xxviii. p. 306.
Among the numerous persons whose acquaintance and friendship I have had the pleasure o f making during
the progress of the present work, no one is more highly valued by me than Mr. Thomas Reeves of Rio
de Janeiro, a gentleman who has at all times most liberally furnished me with whatever information he could
acquire respecting the species inhabiting Brazil, and moreover enriched my collection with some species
I could not have procured elsewhere; among which must be enumerated a very fine example of the bird
figured on the annexed Plate. This new and interesting bird Mr. Reeves informs me is found at St. Paul’s,
and this unfortunately is all that he is enabled to. tell me respecting it. This example is the only one 1
have seen.
The Eucephala cceruleo-lavata is a stout and rather large species for a Humming-Bird, and differs widely
from every other that has come under my notice; in its proportions it may be said to be perfect; its bill
being moderate in size, and its tail, which is slightly forked, well balanced when compared with its body and
wings ; for its colouring I must refer my readers to the accompanying figures and the following detailed
description.
I am not quite satisfied that a place in the genus Eucephala is the proper position for this bird among the
Trochilidse, and I feel that I might, without overstepping the bounds of propriety, have constituted it the
type of a new genus.
Crown of the head greenish blue, not very brilliant, but having a few conspicuous small bright-blue feathers
intermingled ; throat and chest bright greenish blue, passing into purer green on the flanks ; back of
the neck, and back, deep grass-green ; wings purplish brown; upper tail-coverts bronzy orange; under tail-
coverts bronzy purplish brown; two middle tail-feathers deep purplish bronze; the next on each side is
washed with bronze on its outer margin ; the remaining feathers purplish black; thighs greyish white ; the
bill appears to have been reddish flesh-colour at the base of both mandibles and black at the tip.
The figures are of the natural size. The plant is the Nematanthus ioncema.