Somewhat allied to the Panoplite are the members of the genus Frorisuga, Bonap., all of which are remarkable for their large fan-shaped tails, and for having all the feathers of this organ white. The females are less strikingly coloured. One of the species, F. mellivora, enjoys a most extensive range; for it inhabits alike the low lands of Northern Brazil, Cayenne, Guiana, Trinidad, Venezuela, the temperate regions of New Granada, and Central America; the other two are confined to more limited areas. The F. mellivora and F. atra are among the oldest-known and the commonest of the Humming-Birds, there being no collection of any extent without examples of them.
Florisuga mellivora
Habitat: Brazil, Trinidad, New Granada, Bogota, and Guatemala
Plate 113
Florisuga mellivora
Jacobin
Florisuga flabellifera (Gould)
Habitat: The Island of Tobago, and perhaps elsewhere
Plate 114
Florisuga flabellifera
Great Jacobin
“I am not able” [says Mr. Kirk] “to decide as to this bird being a native of Tobago. It is only to be met with at certain seasons; but whether it leaves the island, or retires to the interior, I am not at present prepared to say. It is seldom to be found in open sunshine: the mornings and evenings are its principal times for feeding, and its evolutions then are truly pleasing,—at one instant suspended immovable to the eye (although alternately showing the purest white and green), at the very top of our tallest bamboo, guava, or other tree, and at the next moment at the root, with two or three zigzags right and left, up and down, dipping either into the river or snapping a fly from the surface, and then disappearing. I think it probable that this bird feeds more upon winged insects than most of the others, which may account for its being seen so early in the calm mornings, retiring generally into the thick wild plantain bushes as soon as the sun begins to spread his rays upon them, and appearing again in the evening when he is going down, or when his rays cease to act upon their spot of pleasure. A female shot on the 19th of April contained an egg almost perfect.”—Horæ Zoologicæ, by Sir W. Jardine, Bt., in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol, xx. p. 373.
Florisuga atra
Habitat: Eastern Brazil
Plate 115
Florisuga atra
Pied Jacobin
Featuring all 422 illustrated species from John Gould’s A Monograph of the Trochilidæ, or Family of Humming-Birds arranged by color.
Humming-Birds