162 Mr. D. G. Elliot on the Trochilida. 



This species was first described by Bourcier and Mulsant 

 in the ' lle\aie Zoologique ■" for 1848 ; but for some unac- 

 countable reason Mr. Gould substituted for it the name of 

 prasinus, given by Lesson to an entirely different bird. The 

 colouring of the bill alone should have been amply sufficient 

 to prevent the two from ever being confounded, o.?, prasinus has 

 a black bill, while the present one has a red bill in life, that 

 fades after death to a pale yellow, leaving only the tip black, 

 when the bird is adult. The Chlorostilbon igneus of Gould is a 

 ruddy variety of the present species, which beautiful style is not 

 unfrequently met with among the green Humming-birds. The 

 bird called Hylocharis flavifrons (Gm.) by Von Pelzeln is this 

 species, as I determined from specimens sent to me by H. von 

 Pelzeln from the Vienna Museum. I published this in * The 

 Ibis ' for 1874, p. 89, but there referred the bird to C. prasinus, 

 intending by that name to indicate the present species. It 

 must now read, " equal to C. pucherani, Bourc.^^ I find that 

 this species varies very greatly in the length of the biU among 

 individuals, the two extremes before me being, measured along 

 the gape, "66 and 'SS inch; but between these are all the in- 

 termediate lengths, so that I have no choice but to regard the 

 difterence as being of no specific value. The colours vary 

 also about the head and breast ; but all have a green abdomen 

 and flanks, in contradistinction to its near ally, C. splendidus, 

 Vieill., from the more southern part of the continent, which 

 appears there to replace the present sj)ecies. I have before me 

 the type of C. similis, Bourcier, procured by me from j\I. Bour- 

 cier himself. It cannot in any way be separated from C. puche- 

 rani, with which, so far as I can see, it is identical in every re- 

 spect. The type is that of a fully adult highly plumaged male. 

 The specimens I have examined are : — 

 Brazil, 1 [Salle) , 1 {Bourcier) , 1 {Bourcier) [type of C. si- 

 milis~\,\ {ex Gould) ; Santa Fe, Minas Geraes, 1 {Rogers), 1 {ex 

 Gould) , 2 {ex Boucard) , 1 {ex Whitely) , Rio Janeiro, 1 {Bourcier) , 

 like C. igneus, Gould, Ypanema, 1 {Natterer) , called Hylocha- 

 ris flavifrons by Von Pelz., Mus. D.G. E. 1 {Verreaux), 

 Mus. P. L. S.; Santa Fe, Minas Geraes, 1 {Rogers), Rio Ja- 

 neiro, 1 {Youds), Mus. S. & G. 



