PHAETHORNIS.—PYGMORNIS. 319 
According to de Oca this is a very rare species in Mexico, a statement confirmed by 
recent observation, for we are not aware of any specimens having been obtained in the 
State of Vera Cruz since M. Boucard sent the birds from San Andres Tuxtla to M. Sallé, 
as recorded by Mr. Sclater in 1857. It occurs, however, on the eastern side of the 
Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as Mr. Richardson secured specimens there at Chimalapa in 
March and April 1890 at an altitude of 4000 feet above sea-level. In British Honduras 
and thence southwards in Eastern Guatemala P. longirostris becomes more common, 
We found it fairly abundant in the heavily forested country of Northern Vera Paz in 
February 1862 at an altitude of about 1200 feet, and also near the sea-level at Yzabal. 
It also occurs in Eastern Nicaragua and in Costa Rica. It is rare in many parts of the 
State of Panama, but not uncommon on the line of Railway, and passes beyond our 
limits into Northern Colombia and Western Ecuador. 
P. longirostris was discovered by Delattre, and described in 1843. Shortly afterwards 
M. Sallé, during his visit to Nicaragua, procured the specimens which were named 
Trochilus cephalus by Boucier and Mulsant. The same bird received yet another name 
when Mr. Lawrence described the birds obtained during Lieut. Michler’s expedition to 
Darien as Phaethornis cassini, the types of which were examined by Count Berlepsch 
and pronounced to be inseparable from P. longirostris. A near ally to this species in 
South America is the widely ranging P. swperciliosus (Linn.), which under somewhat 
varying forms extends over the whole of the Amazons Valley and Guiana. From this 
bird it differs in the greater width of the edges of the feathers of the lower back and 
the greater whiteness of the tips of the outer rectrices. 
bt. Minores: cauda regulariter cuneata. 
PYGMORNIS. 
Pygmornis, Benaparte, Rev. Zool. 1854, p. 250; Salv. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus, xvi. p. 280. 
This small form of Phaethornis contains eight species, which occupy nearly the same 
area of South and Central America as their larger allies. Only one species is at all 
common within our limits, a second, which is abundant in Colombia, just reaches our 
southern frontier at Darien. 
Many writers on Trochilide do not separate Pygmornis from Phaethornis ; but on the 
whole we think it best to keep the two forms apart. Pygmornis, besides its small size, 
has a rather differently constructed tail, the central feathers not being distinctly pro- 
minent beyond the rest, but form the apex of a regular wedge. In the adult male the 
tail is shorter than in the female. 
1. Pygmornis adolphi. 
Phaethornis adolphi, Bourec. MS. apud Gould, Mon. Troch. 1. t. 85 (Sept. 1857)*; Sel. P. Z. 8. 
1856, p. 287 (descr. nulla) *; 1859, pp. 367°, 385°; Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 126°; 1860, 
