1G4 Mr. D. G. Elliot on the Trochilidse. 



description, and also speaks of the tail not being forked and 

 not extending beyond the wings, in fact, quite short. Next 

 comes Lesson, in hns 'HistoireNaturelle desOiseaux-Mouches,' 

 and gives to the " Orvert " of Buffon the name of Ornismya 

 prasina, and also describes the black bill, rounded tail, and 

 wings as long as the tail. Lesson's figure of the species is 

 easily recognizable. It is thus established beyond a doubt 

 that the pi'asina of Lesson is a black-billed bird with a 

 slightly rounded tail, and the wings as long as that member. 

 This description answers perfectly for the bird we are accus- 

 tomed to receive from Cayenne, the Amazonian region, and 

 Eastern Peru ; and the figure published by Lesson enables us 

 to feel assured that our determination of his prasina is cor- 

 rect. Bourcier, in his MS., designated a bird from Peru with 

 a wash of blue on. the throat Trochilus daphne ; and in his 

 ' Introduction to the Trochilidse, Mr. Gould adopted this name, 

 and further subdivided the species into three more, under 

 the names oi peruanus, napensis, and brevicaudatus, founding 

 them upon a more or less amount of blue on the throat, and 

 a very slight variation in the shape of the tail. Neither of 

 these characters appears to be of sufficient importance to war- 

 rant a specific distinction, as they are not constant ; that is to 

 say, among individvials the quantity of blue on the throat and 

 the extent of difference of shape in the tail are found to vary, 

 the differences, after all, being very slight, although it might be 

 that some would be inclined to regard the extremes as dift'erent 

 species. The C. brevicaudatus answers perfectly for the de- 

 scription of prasinus, Lesson, and has very little blue obser- 

 vable upon the throat ; this is followed by the style called. 

 napensis, with more blue, and this succeeded by peruanus, to 

 be followed by daphne, which has the throat and some of the 

 breast washed with blue. In 1839 Lesson described a young 

 bird as Ornismya phoebe ; and this, from the difficulty of ascer- 

 taining by the description what species it really was, has been 

 avoided by ornithologists, and Mr. Gould placed it in his 

 ' Introduction' as among the undetermined species. Attached 

 to the type of C. peruanus, kindly lent to me by Mr. Gould, 

 and which he obtained from M. Bourcier, is a label upon 



