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Updated: May 15, 2025
The wings are dark black-brown, with a purple gloss; while the tail is dark black, the upper surface being bronzed. A conspicuous white, slightly elongated spot exists behind each eye, and on each side of the chest there is a broad crescent-shaped mark of light green. The under parts are of a bronzed green, and the under tail-coverts are flaked with a little white.
The largest species at Santo Domingo was the Rhamphastus tocard, Vieill., twenty-three inches in length, of which one-fourth was taken up by the long bill and another fourth by the tail; above, all black, excepting the tail-coverts, which are white; below, throat and breast clear lemon yellow, bordered with red, the rest black, excepting the under tail-coverts, red.
The male Amadina Lathami behaves very differently, exhibiting before the female his brilliantly spotted breast, scarlet rump, and scarlet upper tail-coverts. I may here add from Dr. The common pigeon has iridescent feathers on the breast, and every one must have seen how the male inflates his breast whilst courting the female, thus shewing them off to the best advantage.
This distinction is very useful in identifying young birds and females, which are sometimes very much alike. In fully adult males the orange markings on the flanks and thighs, and the greyish upper tail-coverts of Montagu's Harrier, distinguish it immediately at a glance from the Hen Harrier, in which those parts are white.
Round the bottom of the neck is a broad ruff of soft, downy, ash-grey feathers, and the back and tail-coverts are of a bright lawn. The middle wing-coverts and tail-feathers are glossy black. These superb birds may sometimes be seen seated in pairs on the topmost boughs of trees, but occasionally in large flocks.
The unusual length of the tail-coverts is another remarkable character in Polyplectron; for in some of the species they are half, and in others two-thirds as long as the true tail-feathers. The tail-coverts are ocellated as in the peacock.
The upper part of their bodies were of a green bronze, except the tail-coverts, which were of a somewhat rusty red; while the tails themselves were of a bronzed tint, broadly tipped with white. I knew them by the shape of their bills and their nests to belong to the genus Phaethornis. "They are quite accustomed to me now," she said, "and will not fly away even when I go near them."
High up among the lofty boughs of the thick forest sit a flock of magnificent birds, each the size of a turkey. The plumage is of a deep, shining black colour, reflecting purple and green shades. The abdomen and tail-coverts are white, but the tail is black, and generally tipped with white.
The colour of the upper part of the Chimborazian hill star is of a somewhat dark olive-green, except the wings, which are of a purple-brown tint. The under parts are white; but they deepen into a dusky black upon the under tail-coverts.
Again, in P. malaccense, the ocelli on the tail-coverts are, as we have seen, confluent; and these feathers are of unusual length, being two-thirds of the length of the tail-feathers, so that in both these respects they approach the tail-coverts of the peacock.
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