Flanks buff mixed with green. Wings purplish brown. Under tail-coverts white. Tail purplish black,
margined with rufous, the centre pair slightly washed with green on onter webs. Maxilla black, mandtble
flesh-colour, tip black. Total length 2 i inches, wing I f, tail l i , culmen f.
“ Female. Upper parts bronzy green, brownish upon the head. Flanks buff. Throat, breast and abdomen
white; the throat spotted with dark brown. Under tail-coverts buff edged with white. Wings purplish-
brown. Four central rectrices grass-green, edged on outer web with rufous ; remainder black tipped with
huffy white. Bill and feet black. In size same as the male.”
An adult male, lent to me by Messrs. Salvin and Godman, is figured in the Plate along with a pair of S.
ardens.
CATHARMA ORTHURA.
Lesson’s Flame-bearer.
Ornismyia orthura, Lesson, Hist. Na t. Trochilid. pp. 8 6 , 8 8 , pis. 2 8 , 2 9 (1831).
Trochilus orthui-us, Reichenb. Aufz. der Colibri, p. 1 2 (1853).— Trochil. Enum. p. 1 0 (1855).
Tnyphoena orthura, Bp . Rev. e t Mag. de Zool. 1 8 5 4 , p. 2 57.
Catharma orthura, Elliot, Ibis, 1 8 7 6 , p. 4 0 0 .— Mulsant, H ist. Nât. Oiseaux-Mouches, iv.
p. 6 6 (1877).— Elliot, Synopsis o f the Humming-Birds, p. 1 1 2 (1878).
T h is species remained in obscurity till the year 1876, when Mr. Elliot, having acquired the types for his
collection, identified it as a perfectly distinct form o f Huuiming-bird, and made it the type o f a new genus,
having the form o f an Atthis but the plumage o f a Calliphlox. His remarks on the species in ‘ The Ibis ’
must be consulted by any one wishing to understand the history o f the species.
The following is Mr. Elliot’s account of the typical specimens in bis collection
“ Adult male. Entire upper parts dark shining grass-green. Behind the eye a small white spot. Throat
metallic amethystine red, rather dull, beneath which is a hand o f greyish white extending up the sides o f
the neck; rest of underparts grey, tinged with green, lightest in the centre of the abdomen. Median
rectrices bronze-green, lateral ones green at base, rest black, with a faint indication of white at the tip.
Wings purplish brown. Bill black. Total length 2 f inches, wing I f, tail f , culmen f.
“ Young male. Above golden green. Throat white, spotted with metallic red, and bounded beneath with a
hand of green, followed by another of white. Underparts deep buff, washed with green in lower part of
breast. Middle rectrices bronze-green, lateral ones green at base, rest black, tipped with white.
“Adult female. Above dark green. Ear-coverts, cheeks, and a line around lower part o f the throat
blackish brown. Throat white, spotted with brown. A band of white across the breast, beneath which is
another o f dark brown. Rest o f underparts rufous. Central rectrices bronze-green, lateral ones bronze-
green, with an apical black band. Under tail-coverts pale bronze-green, margined with grey. Wings
purple. Bill and feet black. Dimensions as in the male.”
[R. B. S.]