DELALANDE'S HUMMING-BIRD.

Trochilus Delalandii.-VIEILLOT.

PLATE X.

Trochilus Delalandii, Vieillot, Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle; Temminck, Planches Colorieès, pl. xviii. figs. 1, 2. -Le Plumet bleu Ornismya Delalandii, Lesson, Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux-mouches, pl. xxiii. male; pl. xxiv. female.

THIS remarkable humming-bird was discovered in Brasil by MM. Delalande and Ménétrier, and has been dedicated by Vieillot to the first of these naturalists. The crown of the male is adorned with a beautiful crest, composed of short feathers, with generally one narrow and elongated, which rises in the centre to an inch in length; it is of a rich and deep blue, tipped with white, and appears very graceful, either when erected, or reclining and folded at rest. Behind the eye, upon the auriculars, there is a small, nearly circular patch of clear white, which forms a conspicuous object. The forepart of the throat, breast, and belly, are rich azure blue, surrounded with gray; the head, back, flanks, and wing coverts, bright and

shining green; the vent and flanks are gray; the wings are brownish purple; the centre feathers of the tail of the colour of the upper parts; the remaining feathers are dull blue, and the outer feathers have a conspicuous spot of clear white at the extremities.

The female is nearly of the same size with the male, but wants the beautiful crest; the upper parts are of a golden green, but less shining, and the under parts, instead of the fine azure, are of a clear gray. The white auriculars and spots on the outer tail feathers are, however nearly as conspicuous as in the other sex.

From this species, and another lately discovered, having the lengthened crest of a lilac colour, M: Lodiges proposes to form a genus Cephalepis. The lilac-crested bird is from the Rio Grande, and has been dedicated to Mr Lodiges.