CIt p. YSOLAMPIS. i 177 



tipped with black. Bill and feet black. Total l(>ngtli, ;5-3 j,,. AVini,', '2| in. Tail, 

 r| in. Culmcn, y"jj in. 



Female. Upper snrfacc bronzy-green. Under surface grayish-wliite. "Wings 

 purplish-brown. M(>dian rectrices bronzy-green, lateral ones pnvplisli-I)rown with 

 a green gloss and tipped with white. Bill and feet black. 



Young male. Like the female, but Avith a few brilliant ruby feathers on the head, 

 and a line of glittering topaz on the centre of the throat. 



Very young hird. Upper surface rufous ; unih'r parts gray. Tail puiple-brown, 

 lateral feathers tipped with white. 



Variations in the hues of the head and throat are perceptible among individuals 

 of this species from various localities, but there does not seem to be more than one 

 species. Sometimes very curious forms occur ; and one before me from Brazil (?), 

 ex Whitely, has the top of the head luniinoug orange, and the chin, tliroat, and 

 breast metallic emerald-green. I can, however, only consider this specimen as an 

 abnormal one of the present species; as in every other respect it resembles it exactly. 



The next genus, Bellona, although possessing species of a very different style of 

 coloration from the previous one, seems well placed here. Its members have the 

 basal portion of the culmen hidden in tlie frontal feathers, and the general shape 

 of the birds is very like that of the " Ruby Topaz." — Tliey diff'er, however, in 

 having well-developed ci'ests, and also from the fact, that the metallic hues are 

 confined to the heads, tlicre being none upon any part of the under surface. The 

 term OrihorJii/nchus, wliich has been applied to the species of Bellona, is stated, 

 by nearly all ornithologists, to have been established by Cuvier. Tiiis does not 

 appear to be the fact. The first naturalist who mentions the genus Or/Iior/rgnchu-i, 

 as I have been able to ascertain, is Lacepede in the Memoir de ITnstitute, 1799— 

 1800, torn. 3, p. 510; and Cuvier himself in the Regne Animal, 1817, vol. i, p. 413, 

 cites Lacepedo as the author of the term. No species were given in the Mem. de 

 rinst. as especially belonging to the genus, and the definition is simply, "Bee droit 

 et remplc vers le bout." — Now this will apply to at least one hundred species of the 

 Trochilidae, and it is very clear that Lacepede never intended to restrict his genus 

 to crlsfat'Ufi and exiUs. — The old autliors seem to have divided the Humming-birds 

 into two classes, those with straight bills, which they designated "Orthorhynchus," 

 and those with curved bills, called "Ornismya," or "Colibri," and these were not 

 altogether used as genera as imderstood at the present day. I am unable to find 

 that this term Orthorhgnchus, although used as a genus by authors, has ever been 

 defined beyond the very unsatisfactory definition quoted. As has been shown, it 

 was first employed in the vaguest possible manner by Lacepede ; afterwards 

 restricted by Illiger in his Prodromus, 1811, p. 209, to three species (all belonging 

 to different genera), among which crisiatus and cxUlfi were not included, and then 

 of late applied in an entirely different sense from that for wJiieh it was established 

 by the author last mentioned. "Writers, quoting Cuvier as the creator of the genus 

 Orthorhgnelms, have usually accredited him also with making the T. crisiatus its 

 type. The only circumstance I can find to uphold this idea is, that Cuvier in tlie 

 Regne Animal, 1817, p. 414, in a foot-note gives crisiatus as an example of those 



23 December, 1873. 



