What is "trochilus"

Rubythroat \Ru"by*throat`\, n. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of humming birds belonging to Trochilus, Calypte, Stellula, and allies, in which the male has on the throat a brilliant patch of red feathers having metallic reflections; esp., the common humming bird of the Eastern United States ( Trochilus colubris).

Trochilus \Troch"i*lus\, n.; pl. Trochili. [L. trochilus a kind of small bird. Gr. ?, fr. ? to run.]

1. (Zo["o]l.)

   1. A genus of humming birds. It Formerly included all the known species.

   2. Any one of several species of wrens and kinglets.

   3. The crocodile bird.

2. (Arch.) An annular molding whose section is concave, like the edge of a pulley; -- called also scotia.

n. 1 (context zoology English) Any member of the hummingbird genus ''Trochilus''. 2 (context architecture English) An annular moulding whose section is concave, like the edge of a pulley; a scotia.

The streamertails are hummingbirds in the genus Trochilus that is endemic to Jamaica. It is the type genus of the Trochilidae family. Today most authorities consider the two taxa in this genus as separate species, but some (e.g. AOU) continue to treat them as conspecific, in which case scitulus is a subspecies of T. polytmus. A wide range of common names apply to this combined species, including green-and-black streamertail, Jamaican streamertail or simply streamertail. The name streamertail is a reference to the greatly elongated rectrices of the males.

In Greek mythology, Trochilus was the son of Callithyia (equated with Io "Callithyessa" in her role of the priestess of the Argive Hera). Some traditions credited either him or his mother with invention of the chariot. Tertullian informs that Trochilus (if indeed it was him, and not Erichthonius, who invented the chariot) was said to have dedicated his creation to Hera. Hyginus and the scholiast on Aratus relate that the constellation Auriga was thought by some to be the stellar image of Trochilus with which he was honored for his invention.

Pausanias wrote that Trochilus was a priest of Demeter and that he had to flee Argos because of the crackdown of Agenor on him and settled in Attica, where he married a woman from Eleusis and became by her father of Triptolemus and Eubuleus.