300 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



fossa absent; tibial bridge present; flexor tendons of type Va; syrinx tracheal; 

 bill short and broadly liiaugular, the gape deeply cleft; nostrils oijening ver- 

 tically, close together, nuuo^jerculate; tongue not extensile; secondaries 8-11; 

 alular feathers 2-3; frontal apterium wanting; femoral pteryla? large, separated 

 from dorsal pteryla; aftershaft large Micropodii (p. 681). 



SuperfaiTiily TROCHILI. 

 THE HUMMING BIRDS. 



=Suspensi Illiger, Prodr. Orn., 1811, 209. 



= Trochili\Y AGLER, Nat. Syst. Amph., Saugth. und Vogel, 1830, 82. — Seebohm, 



Classif. Birds, 1890, pp. vii, xi, 5.— Sharps, Rev. Classif. Birds, 1891, 81; 



Hand-list, ii, 1900, 97. 



Small to extremely small Macrocliires with slender bill, extensile 

 tongue, lateral, operculate nostrils, scliizognathous palate, eight pairs 

 of ribs, alula absent or, when present, composed of a single feather, 

 and not more than seven secondaries. 



Metasternum entire, convex, the carina sterna greatly developed; 

 humero-coracoid fossa present; cervical ha^mapophyses '*U=" ; flexor 

 tendons of type Yc; toes anisodactylous, the front plantar leading 

 to the three anterior toes, the liind plantar leading to the hallux, the 

 feet relatively very small; a frontal apterium; femoral pterylie small, 

 connected with the dorsal pteryla; aftershaft (if present) small or 

 rudimentary; adult downs (if present) on apteria only. 



Family TROCHILID^. 



THE HUMMING BIRDS. 



= Trochilid3e Vigors, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., 1825, 468. — Cabanis, in Wieg- 

 mann's Archiv fiir Natiirg., 1847, pt. i, 345. — Bonaparte, Consp. Av., i, 

 1849, 67. — Cabanis and Heine, Mus. Hein., iii, 1860, 3. — FiJRBRiNGER, 

 Unters. Morph. Syst. Vog., ii, 1888, 1381, 1382.— Sharpe, Hand-list, ii, 

 1900, 97. 



As mostly additional to the characters given above under the 

 heading of Superfamily Trochili, the following may be mentioned: 



Palate schizognathous ; nares holorhinal; neck very long, forming 

 four-sevenths of the vertebral column; three free dorsal vertebrae, 

 succeeded by a sacrum of twelve fused vertebrse, terminated by six 

 caudal vertebrae; bones supporting the tail provided with long 

 recurved processes "to furnish ample attachment for the well- 

 defined caudal muscles;" eight pairs of ribs, the first tliree pairs 

 joined to the three free dorsal vertebrae, the succeeding four pairs 

 attached to the first four vertebrae of the sacral series, the eighth 

 pair entirely free at upper end; coracoids pecuHar, the usual notch 

 in upper end being bridged over, fonning a perforation through 

 wliich the tendon from muscles that raise the wing play securely; 

 sternum relatively very large, with keel extremely deep, the meta- 

 sternum strongly convex and entire; bill slender, usually subulate, 



