( 530 ) 



3. (? ? Helianthea traviesi (Muls. & Verr.). 



A Bogota skill recently received dilFcrs from the siipjiosed mi'h; of TTelinnthea 

 travieni iu the British Sluseum, which I consider to be au old bird, in the following 

 characters : it is lighter and more green, not so blackish, everj-where ; the chin is 

 not black, but dark green ; the npper tail-coverts shining golden green, and not 

 purple-bronze. These differences are probably sexual, as similar sexual differences 

 are found, for example, in //. lutetiae, viz. less black but more green colour, 

 differently coloured chin, and differently coloured upper tail-coverts. The second 

 skin in the British Museum is evidently young. 



Eug. Simon iu Cat. Trockil. p. 27 has called attention to the fact that the 

 descriptions which have hitherto been jmblished of //. traviesi do not agree in all 

 details, and he thinks it not impossible that //. traviesi is a hybrid between 

 II. lutetiae and Botircieria torqwita. Such a thing is, of course, not impossible, 

 but not probable, and the discrepancies in the various descriptions and between 

 various specimens may rather be sexual or due to age or different localities, for we 

 have no proper knowledge of this bird, of which only a few skins found iu Bogota 

 collections are known. 



I shall certainly not accept the genus Eudosia for this bird, for it agrees in 

 all structural characters with Helianthea. 



4. Saucerottia inculta (Elliot). 



Of this also we have received two skins from Mr. Dnnstall of London. It is 

 strange that it should have been placed with Eriocnemis, while it is undoubtedly 

 a true Saucerottia. Mons. Simon {Cat. Trockil. p. 13) believes it to be a melauistic 

 variety of S. viridigaster (Bourc), which is possible. 



5. lache doubledayi Bonrc. 



Mr. Salvin, after having allowed specific rank to his /. riitida, has united it 

 with /. doubledayi in the Biologia Centr. Amrr. He did this on the ground of the 

 comparison of specimens similar to his /. nitida with the su])posed type of /. doubledayi 

 in the American Museum of Natural History. The type, however, is still in the 

 beautiful collection of humming-birds in the possession of Mr. George Loddiges, 

 whose grandfather formed it, while the specimen in the American Museum, though 

 given to Elliot by Bourcier, who described I. doubledayi, cannot be the type. I 

 have now compared specimens of the so-called /. nitida with the type of /. doubledayi 

 and found them perfectly identical. The identity of /. doubledayi and /. nitida i» 

 thus established beyond doubt. 



1 have to thank Mr. Loddiges for the permission to see and study several times 

 the well-kept types in his grandfather's collection. 



0. Rhamphomicron microrhynchum (Boiss.). 



This beautiful lit lie huiuiuing-bird has hitherto only been known from 

 (Jolombia and Nortiiern Ecuador, and has come to Europe in great numbers in the 

 Bogota collections. It is not yet recorded from Venezuela, but recently Seuor 

 Salomon Briceiio Gabald6n has sent us a male and a femak from the Andes of 

 Merida. 



