THE IBIS. 



FOURTH SERIES. 



No. II. APRIL 1877. 



X. — Revieiv of the Specimens of Trochilidse in the Paris Mu- 

 seum, brought by D' Orbigny from South America. By D. 

 G. Elliot, F.R.S.E. &c. 



Mindful of the importance of always referring to tlie types 

 of described species of birds or mammals, when possible, in 

 order to ascertain exactly what an author may have had before 

 him when bestowing for the first time a name upon any 

 animal, I have lately passed in review such of the specimens 

 of D^Orbigny^s Humming-birds as are still to be found in 

 the Paris Museum, which are mentioned by himself and 

 Lafresnaye in their ' Synopsis Avium ;' and I have embo- 

 died in the present paper whatever remarks seemed neces- 

 sary regarding them. It is not always easy to ascertain the 

 species to which some particular specimen of Humming- 

 bird belongs, even when the example is present, as all Tro- 

 chilidists well know, much less when a short and imperfect 

 description of some of the earlier writers is all the light given 

 upon which to form an opinion. It therefore seemed de- 

 sirable that D'Orbigny's specimens should be critically ex- 

 amined, as being among the most important of the earlier 

 collections made of these difficult birds.- Some of the species 



SER. IV. VOL. I. L 



