690 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [VolV. 



1879. [SCLATER, p. L., and Salvin', O.] Elliot's Classificatiou of the Trochilitlie. 

 </5t8, 4th ser., iii, Oct., 1879, pp. 479, 480. 

 Xotice of the work. 



ADDENDUM TO TROCHILID^. 



Trochilidine literature is extensive, and most of it is "special" — that is, represented by Imoks and 

 papers exclusivelj' devoted to this group of birds. Hummers are very peculiar birds, and their study 

 may almost be said to form a particular department of ornithology — in fact, the word "Trochilidist" 

 has been coined to designate those who pay special attention to this branch of the science : and there 

 are few ornithologists who, however great theii' general acquirei^euts, can be considered experts in this 

 study. As the plan of this Bibliography, consequently, permits an exceptionally complete exposition 

 of Trochilidine literature, certain points which appear upon consideration of the whole subject may 

 not improperly be here noted, as preliminary to the list of the geuei~a of Hummingbirds \vith which 

 this Addendum concludes. 



Hummers were of course unknown to the ancients, whose rpd^iAos or trochilus is believed to have 

 been one of the Plovers (Charadriid/x). Misled by the false analogy of small size, slender bill, and 

 glittering plumage, some comparatively modem authors have confoiuided these exclusively Americau 

 birds with certain Old "World forms, as the Cinnyridce for instance. But as a rule the TrochUidcf have 

 been recognized as one of the most perfectly circumscribed troups iu ornithology. . The literature of 

 the subject dates back to the '"heroic age''-, the first mention of any bird of this family is said to have 

 been made in 1558, and can scarcely have been earlier. Scattered notices of such birds appeared in 

 various works relating to America diu-ing the remainder of the xvi. and the whole of the xvii. century; 

 but it was not until toward the close of the latter that special papers upon the subject appeared : the 

 oldest one which I have seen dating 1693, when Hamersly* described the ''American Toraineius" in 

 the Philos. Trans. The xviii. century gave us almost nothing of this kind: but notices multiplied in 

 various historical, geographical, and narrative works relating to America: while during the latter half 

 of this century — that is to say, in the Linuiean period — several formal accounts of Troehilidce formed a 

 part of the systematic treatises on ornithology ; notably, those of Linnaeus, Brissou. Buftbn, Gmelin, and 

 Latham ; but the sum is small, and the substance mea^e, of all that was learned of the birds prior to 

 1800. 



In 1758, when Linnaeus applied his system consistently to birds, in the x. ed. of the Syst. Xat., he 

 used the classic word Trochilus for a genus coextensive with the modem family Troehilidce, and cata- 

 logued 18 species, mostly based upon descriptions or figures furnished by Seba, Brown, Sloane, Catesby, 

 Edwards, Clusius, and Albin: with references also to the Mies. Ad. Fr. In the xii. ed., 1766. this number 

 was increased to 2'2, with many additional references, as to Marcgrave. Willughby, Ray, and especially 

 Brisson. 



In 1760, the last-named famous ornithologist gave us what may be deemed the first extended, or in 

 any sense "monographic" account of Troehilidce. Studiously collating the already numerous notices 

 scattered through works of the character I have mentioned, as well as through the illustrated and 

 other natural history treatises of his predecessors in ornithology, he was enabled to desciibe with his 

 customary elaboration no fewer than 36 species, and to present a copious bibliography. He also made 

 the first tenable genera of Hummers after Troehilus. dividing the whole family into two groups. Polyt- 

 muB and Melliiuga — one containing large species with curved bills, the other small species with straight 

 bUls. In this action of Brisson's we see the origin of the curious fashion which so long endured 

 among French writers — that of di.stinguishing ■Colibi-is" from "Oiseaux-mouches' among Troehilidce. 

 It is also notable as the starting-point of a generic subdivision of the group which was destined at 

 length to reach the farcical and scandalous extreme of some 350 genera for few more than 400 known 

 species. 



In 1779, Buftbn adopted the same two divisions of "Colibris" and •■ Oiseaux-mouches," presenting 19 

 species of the former, and 24 of the latter group: a total of 43 Troehilidce. If we except the mere 

 naming and descriljing of some additional species by Gmelin and Latham, nearly all that had been 

 learned of the birds up to the close of the last century was reflected in the works of these two famous 

 French authors. 



In 1788. the industrious but indi.scriminate and incompetent compiler of the xiii. ed. of the Syst. Nat. 

 produced a total of 65 species of Troehilus. None were described except at second-hand, but to many 

 of them binomial names were first affixed. Two years afterward 65 species of Trochilus were recorded 

 in the Ind. Orn. of Latham. t 



"We are thus brought, by the stepping-stones, of but few works requiring special mention here, to 

 the opening of the xix. century, which saw Audebert and Yieillot's luxurious work, Ois. Doris; 

 perhaps the first ornithological work which undertook to reproduce metallic reflections of plumage. 

 The feathery Iris of these exquisite creatures is always fascinating, and there are no more favorable 

 subjects for glittering plates. The work, indeed, was not exclusively a monograph of the Hummers, 



* By a clerical error, and my own oversight, this paper stands a<'credited to Dr. Grew. Winthrop's 

 earlier (1671) paper in the same Trans, does not relate exclusively to the HummingbircL 

 tThe viii. vol.. 1812, of Shaw's Gen. Zool., gave 70 species of Trochilus. 



