BIRDS OP NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 523 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF POLYERATA/' 



n. Bill shorter (culmen 17-19.5 iu male, 18.5-20 iu female); middle rectrices purplish 

 bronze; adult male with violet or violet-blue throat-patch broader and more vio- 

 laceous. (Eastern Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panamd to western Ecuador.) 



Polyerata amabilis (p. 523). 



an. Bill longer (culmen 21-23 iu male, 21-24 in female); middle rectrices greenish 



bronze adult male with throat-patch narrower and more bluish. (Western 



Costa Rica and Panama.) Polyerata decora (p. 525). 



POLYERATA AMABILIS (Gould). 



LOVELY HUMMING BIRD. 



Adult male. — Forehead and crown brilliant metallic green (yel- 

 lowish emerald green); occiput, sides of head and neck, hindneck, 

 back, scapulars, and wing-coverts metalHc bronze-green, changmg to 

 bronze, greenish bronze, or purplish bronze on rump, the upper tail- 

 coverts deep bronze or (usually) purplish bronze; middle pair of rec- 

 trices dark metallic bronze or (usually) purplish bronze; rest of tail 

 black, glossed with bluish, the rectrices next to middle pair dark 

 bronze or purplish bronze basalh^, the exterior ones usually narrowly 

 margined at tip with pale grayish; remiges dark brownish slate or 

 dusk}^, glossed with violaceous; chin and upper throat opaque black 

 viewed from in front, rather dull metallic green or bronze-green, the 

 feathers margined with dusky, when viewed from behind; lower 

 throat and upper chest bright metallic violet-blue, this area purer 

 blue (sometimes greenish blue) exteriorly; lower chest rather dull 

 metallic green or bluish green, the feathers margmed with pale gray 

 or grayish white (especially along median line), the sides and flanks 

 similar, but the green more bronzy; abdomen and median portion of 

 breast pale brownish gray; under tail-coverts dusky gray, faintly 

 glossed with bronze, and margined (more or less broadly) with pale 

 gray or grayish white; femoral tufts white; maxilla dull black, man- 

 dible pale brownish or dull whitish (pink or reddish in life), the tip 

 dusky; iris dark brown; feet grayish brown or dusky ; length (skins), 



o In addition to the two species (or subspecies) found within the geographic limits 

 of this work, three additional oneshavo been described, but they are all autoptically 

 unknown to me. 



(1) Polyerata rosenbergi Boucard. — Polyerata rosenhergi Boucard, Genera Hum. 

 Birds, Dec, 1895, 399 (Rio Dagua, n. w. Colombia; coll. A. Boucard).— Po^yerafa 

 rosenbergii Boucard, The Hum. Bird, v, 1895, G (Rio Dagua; crit.). — A[r/ynria] rosen- 

 bergi Ilartert, Novit. Zool., v, 1898, 517 (crit.); Das Tierreich, Troch., 1900, 48. 



(2) Polyerata reini Berlepsch. — Polyerata reini Berlej^sch, Orn. Monatsber., April, 

 1897, 58 (w. Ecuador; coll. Count von Berlepsch). 



(3) Polyerata cyaneotincta Gounelle. — Polyerata cyaneolincta Gounelle, Rev. Franc;. 

 d'Oru., no. 2, June 7, 1909, 17 (Colombia; coll. E. Gounelle). 



