Encyclopedian Dictionary: Sparkling Violetear ( Colibri coruscans )


Taxonomic Hierarchy
Kingdom	Animalia – Animal, animals
Phylum	Chordata – chordates
Subphylum	Vertebrata – vertebrates
Class	Aves – Birds
Order	Apodiformes – Swifts, Hummingbirds
Family	Trochilidae – Hummingbirds
Subfamily	Trochilinae
Genus	Colibri Spix, 1824 – Violet-ears
Species	Colibri coruscans (Gould, 1846) – Sparkling Violetear
Direct Children:
Subspecies	Colibri coruscans coruscans (Gould, 1846)
Subspecies	Colibri coruscans germanus (Salvin & Godman, 1884)
Subspecies	Colibri coruscans rostratus, W. H. Phelps & W. H. Phelps Jr, 1952

Extract from Monograph of the Trochilidae, by J. Gould ©1887 :

PETASOPHORA GERMANA, Salvin & Godman.

Guiana Violet-ear.

Trochilus anais, Cab. in Schomb. Reis. Guian. iii. p. 707 (1848).
Petasophora germana, Salvin & Godman, Ibis, 1884, p. 451.—Salvin, Ibis, 1885, p. 434.

Mr. Whitely has met with this species only on Roraima in British Guiana. It is described by Messrs, Salvin and Godman as being allied to P. anais and of the same size, but with the throat much more blue, the whole of the lower throat more blue, and the forehead suffused with blue. The authors observe respecting it:—“Mr. Whitely obtained a pair of this species in the neighbourhood of Roraima, the male at an elevation of 5000 feet, the female at 6000 feet. Though the difference between the present bird and P. anais of the Andes is not great, we feel justified in separating them, the ranges of the two being doubtless broken by the low-lying lands of the Orinoco valley. It is no doubt, this species which Schomburgk mentions in his list of Guiana birds (‘Reise in Guiana,’ iii. p. 707).”
The Plate represents an adult male in two positions.

[R. B. S.]