PEOCEEDINGS OF TINITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 149 



Pyrrhophwna cervlnivenins, Caban. & Heixe, Mus. Hein. Ill, 1860, 36 

 (note). — Gould, Introd. Trochilid. 1861, 157 (Cordova). 



Eranna cervinirentris, Heine, J. f. O. 1863, 187 (Cordova). 



Polytmus cervinirentris, Gray, Hand-list, I, 1869, 132, No. 1079 (Mexico. — 

 Subg. Amazili), 



Sp. CH. — Above metallic grass-green, varying to golden-green, duller 

 on the crown and more bronzy on the uj^per tail-coverts, which are 

 sometimes slightly tinged on the edges with rufous. Tail cinnamon- 

 rufous, the intermediae more or less filossed with greenish-bronze (some- 

 times entirely of this color); the other feathers bronze terminally, this 

 color usually' following the edge for a greater or less distance from the 

 tip. Wing-coverts metallic grass-green, like the back ; remainder of 

 the wing uniform brownish-slate, with a very faint violet-purple gloss 

 in certain lights. Throat, jugnlum, and sides of the head and breast 

 brilliant metallic-green, almost emerald in certain lights, the feathers 

 dull white beneath the surface, thus breaking the continuity of the 

 green, especially on the throat, where the feathers are broadly tipped 

 with green. Rest of lower parts pale fawn-color, or dilute cinnamon- 

 buff, deepest on the crissum ; sides glossed with bronze-green ; anal tufts 

 and thighs cottony-white. Bill reddish (light brown in the dried skin), 

 the terminal third blackish. Feet dusky. Wing, 2,15-2.20; tail, 1.50- 

 1.60, depth of its fork about 0.20 ; culmen, 0.80. iSexes alike in colora- 

 tion. 



Hab. — Eastern Mexico, from the Rio Grande Valley (United States 

 side) to Yucatan. 



The two examples in the National Collection (No. 24,873, tTalapa, and 

 70,949, Fort Brown, Texas) differ in some minor details of coloration 

 Thus, the former has the middle pair of tail-feathers entirely greenish- 

 bronze, except a very small space on each web concealed by the longer 

 upper tail-coverts ; the bronzy ends of the other feathers are distinctly 

 glossed with dark purple, and the outer pair of feathers have scarcely a 

 trace of bronze at their ends. The latter specimen, on the other hand, 

 has the basal two-thirds of the intermediae wholly rufous, the bronzy 

 ends of the other feathers destitute of a purple gloss, and the outer pair 

 of feathers very distinctly tipped with bronze and edged for their whole 

 length with a darker shade of the same color. These differences, how- 

 ever, are doubtless only individual, or, possibly, sexual. The Fort 

 Brown specimen is a little the larger, but the diff'erence in size is very 

 slight. Neither has the sex marked. 



I have not seen a s})ecimen of the so-called " yucatanensis, Cabot ", but 

 follow Mr. Elliot (MSS.) in considering it the same as the bird after- 

 wards described by Mr. Gould as cerviniventris. — R. R. 



This Hummer, also new to the avifauna of the United States, and 

 heretofore known only from Mexico, was first taken on the 17th of August, 

 1876, and its capture noted in the Bulletin of January, 1877, p. 26. It 

 proves to be an abundant summer visitor, and I have nowhere found 



