淡黄蜂鸟

Venezuela

There is but little in this species to attract attention, nevertheless to the Trochilidist it is not destitute of interest.

The uniformity of the buffy hue of its under surface is a feature rarely occurring among Humming Birds.

The Leucippus fallax may be considered rare, since but few specimens are to be found either in the collections of England or in those of the Continent. For those contained in my own I am indebted to Mr. Dyson, who procured them in Venezuela. They offer no difference whatever either in size or colouring, and in all probability it will be found that there is no outward distinction between the sexes, and that the adult livery is assumed at a very early age; for among the specimens I possess is a half-fledged nestling, which has already acquired the plumage of the adult.

Head olive-brown tinged with green; upper surface and wing-coverts green; wings dark purplish brown; four centre tail-feathers bronzy green; lateral feathers bronzy green at the base, passing into black and largely tipped with white, the white increasing in extent as the feathers recede from the centre; throat, breast and abdomen deep buff; under tail-coverts white; upper mandible, and point of the lower, black; remainder of the under mandible either pale yellow or flesh-colour.

The figures are of the natural size. The plant is the Dictyanthus Pavonit.

References

• Trochilus fallax, Bourc. Rev. Zool. 1843, p. 103.—Ib. Ann. de la Soc. Sci. de Lyons, 1843, p. 44.
• Trochilus (Lampornis?) fulviventris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xiv. p. 88.
• Polytmus fallax, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 108, Polytmus, sp. 55.
• Leucippus fallax, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 73, Leucippus, sp. 1.—Reichenb. Aufz. der Colibris, p. 11.—Ib. Troch. enumer., p. 8. pl. dcclxxxiii. figs. 4820, 4821.
• Doleromyia fallax, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 249.