482 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



COLIBRI THALASSINUS (Swainson). 



MEXICAN VIOLET-EAR. 



Adult male. — Above metallic green or bronze-green, darker or 

 duller on pileum; tail metallic bluisli green or greenish blue (middle 

 rectrices sometimes green or even bronze-green) crossed by a broad 

 subterminal band of blue-black; remiges dark brownish slate or 

 dusky, very faintly glossed -with bronzy purplish or violet, the 

 secondaries more or less glossed at tip and on edges with metallic 

 green or bronze-green; loral, suborbital, and auricular regions rich 

 metallic dark violet-blue, tliis sometimes invading, somewhat, sides 

 of neck; malar region, cliin, and throat bright metallic green (varying 

 from sHghtly bluish to yellowish emerald green), each feather with a 

 darker mesial streak or spot; center of chest dark metalUc blue or 

 violet-blue, this passing into metalhc-gTcen laterally; breast, sides, 

 flanks, and abdomen metallic green or bronze-green, duller posteriorly^ 

 where sometimes shghtly broken by faint pale grayish brown or pale 

 grayish buif tips or margins to the feathers; under tail-coverts 

 metalhc green or bronze-green, margined or edged with pale buffy 

 brownish or grayish bufly; bill dull black; uis dark brown; feet dusky 

 grayish brown; length (sldns), 103-122 (114); mng, 63-70 (66.9); 

 tail", 39-45 (42.3); culmen, 18-22 (20.2).« 



Adult female. — Similar to the adult male, but smaller and shghtly 

 duller in coloration; length (skins), 103-112 (107); wing, 60-63 (61); 

 tail, 35.5-40 (37.5); culmen, 19-22 (20.3).'' 



Young. — Similar to adult female, but much duller in coloration, 

 the upper tail-coverts and feathers of rump (sometimes pileum also) 

 narrowly and indistinctly margined with pale grayish buffy: green 

 of under parts much duller and suffused mth grayish, the feathers 

 indistinctly margined terminally with pale grayish, and blue of chest 

 absent or shghtly indicated. 



Southern Mexico, in States of Guanajuato, Mexico (Temasc^ltepec; 

 Ajusco; Tetelco; Chimalapa; Valley of Mexico; Hacienda Eslava), 

 Hidalgo (Real del Monte), Puebla, Vera Cruz (Jalapa; Cordova; 



