Mr. D. G. Elliot on the Trocliilidjc. 401 



allied perhaps to Atthis. It has the form of Atthis, but the 

 general coloration of Calliphlox amethystina. Four speci- 

 mens are now before me, all from Cayenne — two adult males, 

 one young male, and one still in the dress of the female, the 

 sex being indicated by a few metallic spots upon the throat. 

 The males, as I have said, are similar in colour to C. ame- 

 thystiJia, but at once are seen to be conspicuously dif- 

 ferent from that species by their long bills and very short 

 square tails. Fortunately these four specimens exhibit very 

 clearly the different stages the tail o£ the male assumes before 

 the bird arrives at maturity. At first the lateral rectriccs are 

 brownish or purplish black, tipped with white ; then they 

 change to a golden green, with a terminal bar of pvirplish 

 black and the tip white, which in the adult disappears, or is 

 but faintly indicated underneath, leaving the tail golden 

 green with an apical purplish black bar. In this style of 

 coloration it in no way has the least resemblance to C. 

 amethystina, with which it has for so long been confounded. 

 M. Bourcier was clearly in error in his opinion, as quoted by 

 Mr. Gould (Mon. Troch, art. on C. amethystina) , that the 

 orthura of Lesson was only the young of C. amethystina-, 

 and it was doubtless this opinion that led Mr. Gould astray : 

 it is difficult to understand how so good a Trochilidist as M. 

 Bourcier undoubtedly was should have gone so wide of the 

 mark as to confound such distinct species together. The 

 example figured by Mr. Gould as the female of C. amethys- 

 tina I should consider most probably the present species ; 

 for the female " Amethyst " has quite a different dress, as my 

 description of that sex in this paper clearly shows. The bill 

 of Cathanna orthura is very long, much longer than that 

 of the ''Amethyst,^' and is the more conspicuous probably on 

 account of the very short tail, which just projects beyond the 

 tips of the closed wings. Lesson^s descriptions being very 

 accurate, it will not be necessary for me to give one at pre- 

 sent. As I have said in my remarks on C amethystina, 

 it is impossible to state what Trochilus brevicauda of Spix 

 really is, or to which of these species it should be referred ; 

 I have therefore deemed it best to leave it as a svnonvm of the 



