BIEDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 421 



AMIZILIS VIRIDIFRONS (Elliot). 



GREEN-FRONTED HUMMING BIRD. 



Adult male.^ — Forehead and median portion of crown dark, slightly 

 metallic, indigo blue; sides of crown, auricular region, occiput, and 

 hindneck dusky metallic bronze-green, the upper back, scapulars, 

 and wing-coverts rather brighter and more bronzy; lower back and 

 rump grayish brown or olive, glossed with bronze; u])per tail-coverts 

 dull coppery bronze, narrowly margined with dull bully whitish; tail 

 metallic bronze, tinged with coppery bronze, the rectrices narrowly 

 and indistinctly tipped with buffy; remiges dusky, faintly glossed 

 with violet; suborbital region (anteriorly), rictal and malar regions, 

 and under parts (including under tail-coverts), immaculate white, 

 the sides ])artly grayish brown glossed with bronze; bill brownish 

 (ros3^ red in life?), dusky terminally; iris dark brown; legs and feet 

 dusky (in dried skins) ; "length (skins), 99-103 (101); wing, 58-61.5 

 (60.1*); tail, 31.5-35 (33.2); culmen, 22^24.5 (23.2).^ 



Adult female. — Similar to the adult male (as described above), but 

 forehead and crown dull dusky green, and rectrices without buffy 

 tip; length (skins), 9G-106 (100); wing, 55-60.5 (58.5); tail, 30.5-35 

 (32.5); culmen, 20-24.5 (22.7).'= 



Immature ( ?) male.'^ — Exactly like the adult female in coloration. 



Young. — Essentially like the adult female, but forehead and crown 

 sooty, without trace of greenish or bluish gloss, and feathers of lower 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts narrowly tipped or terminally 

 margined with pale buffy grayish. 



Southwestern Mexico, in States of Guerrero (Rincon; Tierra Colo- 

 rado; Zumpango del Rio; Chilpancingo; Coquilla; Acahuitzotla; 

 Sierra Madre del Sur), Oaxaca (Putla; Tehuantepec; Santa Efigenia; 

 Tapana), and Chiapas (Tonala). 



Cyanomyia viridifrons Elliot, Ann. and Mag. N. H., ser. 4, viii, 1871, 2GG (Puda, 

 Oaxaca; coll. D. G. Elliot); Ibis, 1876, 314 (Putla; synon.; crit.).— De Oca, 

 La Natiu-aleza, iii, 1875, 304.— Salvin, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xvi, 1892, 196 

 (Putla and Tehuantepec, Oaxaca; Rincon, Acahuitzotla, and Tierra Colorado, 



a The only specimen examined corresponding in plumage to the fully adult male 

 as described above is from Acahuitzotla, Guerrero, and represents the so-called 

 Cyanomyia guerrerensis Salvin and Godman. All others examined lack both the 

 dark blue forehead and buffy tip to the rectrices. I am fully convinced, however, 

 that these bluish fronted specimens are neither specifically nor subspecifically dis- 

 tinct from the greenish fronted ones, for the reason that the two occur in the same 

 locality, both being represented from Acahuitzotla. Whether the apparently adult 

 males with greenish forehead are in reality females wrongly sexed, are younger males, 

 or merely represent individual variation can be determined only from more ample 

 material. 



b Three specimens. 



c Six specimens. 



^ Possibly representing merely individual variation in the fully adult male. 



