EUTOXERES HETERURA, Gould.
Ecuadorean Sickle-bill.
Eutoxeres heterura, Gould, Ann. & Mag. N a t. Hist. ( 4 ) i. p. 4 5 5 (1 8 6 8 ).— Elliot, Synopsis o f
th e Humming-Birds, p. 3 (1 8 7 8 ).— Eudes-Deslongchamps, Annuaire Mus. d’Hist.
N a t. Caen, i. p. 73 (1 8 8 1 ).
Grypus heterura, Gray, Hand-list o f Birds, i. p. 1 23, no. 1 5 4 8 (1 8 6 9 ).
T his species is not very different from the Colombian Eutoxeres aquila, which it replaces in Ecuador; hut
the stripes on the breast seem to be always o f a bright fulvous colour, instead of whitish as in the above-
mentioned bird.
The following remarks are quoted from my original paper on these birds I have for some time past
had reason to believe that the Humming-birds of this highly singular form comprised more species than the
two already described (Eutoxeres aquila and E . Condamini) ; but it is only of late that I have acquired
sufficient materials to justify my arriving at any satisfactory conclusion on the subject. At this moment I
have before me three specimens of the true E. aquila from New Granada, seven skins o f a bird from the
neighbourhood of Quito, which I consider to be distinct from that species, and three from Veragua, which
differ slightly from both.
“ E. aquila is the largest species of the genus, and is distinguished by the snow-white shafts of its tail-
feathers, which doubtless show very conspicuously when the bird is on the wing and the tail widely spread ;
this character is found in every specimen I have examined, and, I believe, will prove constant. The Quitan
bird, like some of the Phaethornithes, is extremely variable in its markings; for instance, the tail, in some
specimens, has the tips o f the feathers white for nearly half an inch from the tip, in others for a quarter, in
others, again, for an eighth; and I possess one in which the white tipping is absent, all the feathers being of
a uniform olive-grey; but in no instance that I have seen does the white extend down the shaft as in
E . aquila. On comparing the seven Quitan specimens with the Bogotan birds, I find that the striae on the
breast are black and white in the former, and black and buff in the latter. I shall designate the Quitan bird
E. heterura, with the following description:—
“ Upper mandible wholly black, under mandible yellow for two thirds o f its length from the base, the
remainder olive-brown; crown o f the head nearly black, each feather glossed with green at the tip ; upper
surface dull grass-green; tail olive-grey, in some instances tipped with sullied white; wings deep purplish
black; under surface, from the throat to the vent, striated with black and buff, the buff becoming lighter on
the centre o f the abdomen ; under tail-coverts brown, varied with black. Total length 5 inches, bill 1, wing
2&, tail 2}, tarsi t-”