262 TROCHILID®. 
near the tip. The plumage of the male is glittering green on the under surface, that 
of the female dingy white. ‘The tail is forked in all the Central-American species, 
more deeply in C. auriceps and C. forficatus than in any other member of the genus. 
Some of the South-American species have the tail very slightly forked and even 
a little rounded. 
The number of species in Chlorostilbon is variously estimated, owing to the slight 
characters separating many of them. In his recent Catalogue, Salvin defines thirteen 
species, Mr. Elliot having recognized only eight. Other ornithologists might admit a 
greater number, but their definition cannot fail to be very obscure. 
The thirteen species are distributed over the greater part of Tropical America, from 
Western Mexico to South Brazil. Four species occur within our limits, one of them, 
C. auriceps, being peculiar to Western Mexico; a second, C. forficatus, to the islands 
off the coast of Yucatan; a third, C. canivet?, has a wide range from Eastern Mexico 
to Costa Rica; and the fourth, C. assimilis, seems to be restricted to Panama *. 
«. Rostrum carneun ad apicem nigrum ; rectrices intermedie cinereo terminate. 
1. Chlorostilbon auriceps. 
Trochilus auriceps, Gould, Contr. Orn. 1852, p. 187°. 
Chlorostilbon auriceps, Gould, Mon. Troch. iii, t. 850 (May 1857) *; Villada, La Nat. ii. p. 861° ; 
de Oca, La Nat. i. p. 160°; Sanchez, An. Mus. Nac. Mex. i. p. 96°; Salv. & Godm. Ibis, 
1889, p. 866°; Salv. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvi. p. 45"; Herrera, La Nat. (2) i. p. 822°. 
Supra nitenti-aureo-viridis, pileo corruscante: subtus micanti-viridis, aureo suffusus ; cauda elongata, profunde 
furcata, chalybeo-ceerulea, rectricibus omnibus, extima utrinque exceptis, plus minusve griseo terminatis : 
rostro carneo, apice nigro. Long. tota circa 3°75, ale 1:7, caude rectr. med. 0-6, rectr. lat. 1-6, rostri a 
rictu 0-65. (Descr. maris exempl. typ. ex Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 
2 juv. cauda minus furcata, rectrice externa utrinque breviore et albo terminata; corpore subtus griseo-albo, 
plumis viridibus intermixtis. 
Q supra nitenti-aureo-viridis: subtus sordide alba, regione auriculari fusca; caudee rectricibus sex intermediis 
viridibus dorso fere concoloribus, duabus utrinque externis fascia lata subterminali chalybeo-cerulea, extima 
utrinque quoque albido terminata et fascia albida mediana notata. Long. caudex rectr. med. 0-62, rectr. 
lat. 1:0. (Descr. maris juv. et femine ex Tepic, Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Mexico (floresi'), Santiago de Tepic, Tepic, San Blas (W. B. Richardson"), 
Valley of Mexico (de Oca*, Sanchez°, Herrera’), Tonila (W. Lloyd“), Chilpan- 
cingo and Acaguizotla in Guerrero (Mrs. H. HH. Smith’). 
Gould’s description of this species was based upon specimens obtained by Floresi in 
Mexico, but in which district was not recorded, and it is only recently that we have 
ascertained that it occurs chiefly in Western Mexico from Tepic and San Blas to the 
mountains of the State of Guerrero. Our collectors in these portions of Mexico have 
secured us a series of specimens exactly agreeing with the types. According to de Oca 4 
* C. insularis, Lawr. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. vii. p. 457, was founded upon a specimen of the Brazilian C. puche- 
rant. See Berl. Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. xi. p. 564. 
