396 Mr. D. G. Elliot on the Trochilid*. 



it with H. auritus, and I fail to discover any character which 

 should cause it to be separated from that species. The bill 

 is slightly longer, though hardly perceptibly so ; there is no 

 difference in the general measurements of the body ; and the 

 head and back are of about the same brilliancy as is ob- 

 served in ordinary specimens of H. auritus. I therefore 

 placed H. longirostris among the synonyms of the present 

 species. 



Heliothrix auriculatus. 



Trochilus auriculatus, Nordm. Erman's Reise um die Erde, 

 p. 5, t. 2. figs. 1 & 2 (1835). 



Heliothrix auriculatus, Gould, Mon. Troch. vol. iv. pi. 214 ; 

 id. Intr. Troch. (8vo ed.) p. 121. sp. 239. 



Heliothrix phainol(Bma, Gould, P. Z. S. 1855, p. 87. 



Hah. Southern Brazil ; banks of llio Napo (?) and Rio Ne- 

 gro (?) [Gould). 



This bird was first described by Nordmann under a MS. 

 name of Lichtenstein's. Although similar to H. auritus, it is 

 readily distinguished by having the throat a brilliant metallic 

 green, instead of white. It is apparently confined to Southern 

 Brazil. In 1855 Mr. Gould descvihed Heliothrix jjhainolcema 

 from specimens said to have come from the Bio Napo, and 

 which difiered from H. auriculata in having the entire throat a 

 metallic green. In his monograph of the Trochilidee he states 

 the locality of his specimens to be the Bio Negro in Northern 

 Brazil ; and the figures on his plate being represented in pro- 

 file, the exact extent of the green throat-mark cannot be 

 perceived, while his description of " chin, throat, and sides of 

 the neck rich luminous green" answers jaerfectly well for 

 adult male specimens o^H. auriculatus lying before me. I am 

 inclined to think that Mr. Gould is in error with regard to 

 the locality of the specimens he described and figured (as he 

 gives such distant places as the habitat in his two statements), 

 and that he had merely fine adult males of H. auriculatus 

 before him when he published his description. 



Having, in my own collection, specimens of the present 

 species that exhibit a varying amount of green on the throat. 



