Generic characters.
Male.— Bill cylindrical, longer than the head, and slightly upcurved; wings very large and sickle-shaped; tail broad and large; tarsi clothed; feet small; hind toe shorter than the middle one; claws long, slightly curved, and sharp at the point.
Female.—Unadorned.
Pterophanes Temmincki
Habitat: New Granada and Ecuador
Plate 178
Pterophanes Temmincki
Temminck’s Sapphire-wing
The Pterophanes Temmincki must rank with the Patagona gigas among the very largest of the Humming-Birds; the two species are nearly equal in size, but in their structure and the colouring of their plumage they are very different. The native country of the P. Temmincki is the temperate portion of the Andes, over which it ranges for a considerable distance from Bogota, the probable centre of its area. I have also seen specimens from Ecuador, where it appears to be scarce. This fine bird is rendered a very striking species by the beautiful blue colouring of its wings.
Featuring all 422 illustrated species from John Gould’s A Monograph of the Trochilidæ, or Family of Humming-Birds arranged by color.
Humming-Birds