260 TROCHILID.X. 
We have a series of specimens of this species obtained by Mrs. H. H. Smith between 
Acapulco and the mountains of the State of Guerrero, and by Mr. W. B. Richardson 
on the western side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec at Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec 
city, which we have hitherto considered distinct from JL. doubledayi and have called 
T. nitida; and we should still have so treated them had not Mr. Ridgway informed us 
that he had compared a specimen in the United States National Museum from Dos 
Arroyos and found it to agree exactly with the type of I. doubledayz. This fact 
and the evident variation existing between individuals of this bird now compel us to 
place I. nitida as a synonym of J. dowbledayi. Mrs. Smith’s specimens were all 
collected in the months of September and October, Mr. Richardson’s in February. 
The heads of the latter are a little greener on the crown than the others, due probably 
to the feathers being older; but all these birds have deep blue throats and steel-blue 
under tail-coverts and thus differ slightly from the Chinautla specimen of £. doubledayi. 
We have no notes of the habits of this species, the range of which seems to be 
restricted to the sea-coast of South-western Mexico and the low-lying land immediately 
adjoining. 
b!. Serus similes, mas sicut femina vestitus. 
PHAZOPTILA. 
Pheoptila, Gould, Mon. Troch. v. t. 340 (July 1861) ; Salv. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvi. p. 63. 
A genus containing a single species the range of which is given below. Its 
position in the systematic arrangement of the Trochilide has been altered many 
times. Gould placed it near Jache, which we think is its right place. Mr. Elliot 
separated the two genera nearly as widely as possible, but gave no reasons for so 
doing. Mr. Ridgway locates it next Amazilia. 
In many points of structure Phwoptila resembles ache. ‘The serration of the 
maxilla is similar in both, so also is the denudation of the nasal covers and the inter- 
ramal space, as well as the general colour of the female. 
Pheoptila differs from Jache in the coloration of the sexes, the males in the latter 
genus being brightly tinted, whilst in the former the male is dull and hardly differs 
from the female except in the colour of the tail, in which the difference is one not 
unfrequently seen in the ‘Trochilide, the bases of the outer feathers and their tips 
being pale grey, those feathers of the male being uniform. 
1. Pheoptila sordida. 
Cyanomyia (?) sordida, Gould, Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1859, iv. p. 97’; Scl. P. Z.S. 1839, p. 886 *. 
Pheoptila sordida, Gould, Mon. Troch. v. t. 340 (July 1861)°; de Oca, La Nat. iii. p. 210°; 
Salv. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvi. p. 63’. 
Doleromya sordida, Boucard, Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon, xx. p. 282°. 
Pheoptila zonura, Gould, Intr. Troch. p. 170"; de Oca, La Nat. iii. p. 304°. 
