Eucephala cyanogenys

This species, which was described by the Prince of Wied as long ago as 1882, still remains to be rediscovered; for I have never seen a specimen, nor does Mr. Elliot appear to have been more fortunate, as he says the type specimen, which ought to have been in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, appears to have been lost.

It is the more curious that specimens do not turn up, because Prince Wied speaks of it as by no means rare in all the parts of Brazil he visited; but Natterer does not record it, and it is just possible that it may have been extinguished as a species since Wied’s time by the insensate mania for adorning ladies’ hats and bonnets with the skins of Humming-Birds, which during the last twenty years has wrought indescribable havoc amongst the commoner species.

References

More hummingbirds in the genus Eucephala

• Eucephala Grayi Blue-headed Sapphire
• Eucephala smaragdo-cærulea Green and Blue Sapphire
• Eucephala chlorocephala Green-headed Sapphire
• Eucephala cæruleo-lavata Reeve’s Sapphire
• Eucephala hypocyanea Blue-breasted Sapphire
• Eucephala cærulea Blue-chinned Sapphire
• Eucephala scapulata Black-bellied Sapphire
• Eucephala pyropygia Fire-rumped Sapphire
• Eucephala subcærulea Blue-breasted Sapphire