586 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



MELLISUGA CATHARINE (Salle). 



HAITIAN VERVAIN HUMMING BIRD. 



Similar to M. minima but adult male much darker (both above 

 and below), with wing and tail longer, the latter more deeply forked, 

 the adult female slightly darker below. 



Adult male. — Above dark dull metallic green, darker (sometimes 

 nearly black) on rump and upper tail-coverts; tail black, including 

 middle rectrices; remiges dusky, very faintly glossed with purplish; 

 auricular and suborbital regions deep sooty gray; chin, throat, and 

 chest pale gray, the fii'st two with feathers dusky gray centrally 

 producing a spotted effect; under parts of body dark metallic green, 

 intermixed along median line with gray; under tail-coverts dark 

 metallic green narrowly margined with pale gray and with base of 

 feathers grayish; femoral and lumbar tufts white; bill dull black; 

 iris dark brown; feet dusky; length (skins), 57-66 (62); wing, 34-36.5 

 (35.1); tail, 16.5-19 (17.9), middle rectrices, 12-14 (12.8).« 



Adult female. — Above rather dark metallic green, bluish green or 

 (rarely) bronze-green, including basal two-thirds (approximately) of 

 middle rectrices; lateral and termmal or subterminal portion of 

 middle rectrices black, the outermost pair broadly, the next less 

 broadly tipped with dull white, the third sometimes narrowly tipped 

 with the same; remiges dusky, faintly glossed wdtli purplish; under 

 parts pale gray, paler (nearly grayish white) on chin, throat, and 

 abdomen, deepening into sooty gray laterally (especially on auricular 

 and suborbital regions and sides of neck) , the sides and flanks glossed 

 with metallic green; bill, etc., as in adult male; length (skins), 65-71 

 (68) ;wmg, 36-40 (37.1); tail, 18.5-21 (19.5); culmen, 10-11.5 (10.8).'' 



Immature male. — Similar to the adult female but feathers of chin 

 and throat with a darker gray mesial streak, and sides more strongly 

 or extensively glossed with green. 



Island of Haiti (Le Coup and Port au Prince, Haiti; Catare, SamanS, 

 Bay, Sanchez, La Vega, Honduras, Caha Honda, La Canita, San 

 Francisco Mountams, and Rio San Juan, Santo Domingo). 



(??) [Trochilus] niger Linn^us, Sys. Nat., ed. 10, 1758, 121 (Indiis); ed. 12, pt. 1, 



1766, 192.— Gmelin, Syst. Nat., i, pt. i, 1788, 496. 

 Troc/iiZws mgrer (not of Linnaeus?) Vieillot, Ois. Am. Sept. i, 1807, 73 {L'Oiseau- 



mouche a ventregris). 

 Trochilus mellisugus (not of Latham) Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., vii, 



1817, 363, part (Santo Domingo c). 

 II[ylocha7-is] nigra Gray and Mitchell, Gen. Birds, i, 1844, 114. 

 [Ornis7mja] niger Bonaparte, Consp. Av., i, 1850, 81 (Santo Domingo). 

 Trochilus miniinus (not of Linnaeus) Audebert and Vieillot, Ois. Dor6s, i, 1802, 



113, pi. 64, part.— Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hiet. Nat., vii, 1817, 369, part.— 



Lesson, Index Gen. et Synop. Troeh., 1832, p. xxvii, part. — Bryant, Proc. 



o Seven specimens. 



b Six specimens. 



c Cites also Cayenne and Porto Rico ! 



