METALLURA JELSKII, cab.
Jelski’s Copper-tail.
M e ta llu ra jelsld i, Cab. Journ. fiir Orn. 1 8 7 4 , p. 9 9 .— Mulsant, H ist. N a t. Oiseaux-Mouches,
iii. p. 1 0 9 cum fig . (1877).— Elliot, Synopsis o f the Humming-Birds, p. 164
(1 8 7 8 ).— Tacz. Orn. du Pérou, i. p. 3 5 4 (1884).
M e ta llu ra cupreicauda, Tacz. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1 8 7 4 , p. 5 4 4 (nec Gould).
T his species was discovered in Peru by the celebrated Polish traveller whose name it hears, and by whom
it was met with in the high mountains near Lake Junin, between Cucas and Palcamayo.
Mr. Elliot places the species in the section o f the genus Metallura with bluish-green throats and blackish-
purple general coloration. It is allied to M. opaca and M. clloropogon, hut is distinguished by the colour
o f the tail, which, according to Mr. Elliot, is luminous vinous purple. Nothing has been recorded of
its habits.
The following description is translated from Dr. Taczanowski’s work on the Birds o f Peru
Adult male. The entire plumage is black of a dull silky texture, presenting under certain lights,
especially when seen frontways from behind, a slight lustre of bluish or reddish violet, according to the
direction o f the ligh t; tail-coverts brownish black, glossed with bronzy or reddish copper; fore part of the
throat ornamented with scaly plumes of a dark and brilliant emerald-green; anal region downy and white;
under tail-coverts bronzy, with a violet reflection and bordered with pale reddish; wing-coverts dull
coppery bronze, taking under certaiu lights a lustre of reddish violet similar to that o f the general
plumage; quills brown, glossed with bronzy olive and violet in their terminal parts; tail slightly emarginate,
the tail-feathers broad, the middle ones slightly rounded, the others rather pointed at the extremity, o f a
dark coppery bronze, taking a lustre o f more reddish or violet colour according to the direction of the light,
and changing to a fine greenish-blue but very brilliant lustre when looked at from behind forwards ; lower
part of the tail coppery red or violet, more brilliant than the upper surface. Bill straight, black, much
longer than the head, a little less than half the body; feet black, with the tarsus almost entirely bare.
Adult female. Dusky black above, brownish below, with the same violet lustre as the male; forehead pale
brownish grey, gradually passing into a darker shade on the hind neck; feathers of the breast and abdomen
narrowly fringed with buif, more distinctly in the middle o f the belly; tail-coverts dull bronze; fore neck
ornameuted with scaly feathers, of a blue colour broadly edged with violet, the lustre less strongly developed
than in the male; tail not so long, somewhat truncated, similar in colour to the male, but in general less
red and more coppery, with the greenish blue not so brilliant.
[R. B. S.]
METALLURA PRIMOLINA.
Guiana Copper-tail.
S pecimens of this bird were sent by Mr. Wbitely from British Guiana, and we were induced to figure it
under the idea that it was new to science. Mr. Salvin, however, considers that it is the adult male of
M. primo/im, and the name of M. heterocerca will have to be suppressed.
[R. B. S.]