FAMILY TROCHILIDAE 323 



This interesting hummingbird was one of the important discoveries 

 during Goldman's work on Cerro Pirre in 1912. His first specimen, 

 a female, was taken March 6 at 1,525 meters elevation on the head 

 of the Rio Limon. A male was secured near this same point but a 

 little lower at 1,375 meters on May 1. In the meantime he secured 

 an adult male at 600 meters near Cana on March 16. These specimens 

 were the basis of the original description by Nelson. The species 

 was obtained next by Oliver Pearson, who secured 1 in 1938 on 

 Cerro Pirre, a male, on March 29. The specimen is in the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The Academy also has another 

 (sex not marked, but apparently a female) collected by Dawson 

 Feathers at 900 meters on Cerro Sapo, above Garachine, on May 3, 

 1941, during the Fifth George Vanderbilt Expedition. Dr. Pedro 

 Galindo has sent me a male caught on August 18, 1965, in a mist net 

 set above the old site of Cana on Cerro Pirre. 



The only available information on this species in life is a brief 

 mention in Goldman's notes that his specimens were taken while 

 feeding at flowers. 



This hummingbird resembles Goldmania violiceps in specialization 

 of the central under tail coverts, which in Goethalsia are even longer 

 and larger than in the other genus, as the modified area involves some 

 of the shorter feathers on either side. The wing differs, as the tenth 

 outer primary in Goethalsia is definitely longer than the one adjacent, 

 and is not narrowed at the tip. 



The birds range the length of Cerro Pirre, as indicated by 2 others 

 collected by Oliver Pearson in 1938, a male on April 6, now in the 

 American Museum of Natural History, and another (sex ?, prob- 

 ably J) on April 7, in the Academy of Natural Sciences, both marked 

 "15 mi. s. of Mt. Pirre." From information received in correspondence 

 with Dr. Pearson, it has been learned that the locality is in the head 

 of the valley on the eastern side of the Alturas de Nique at the 

 southern end of the Pirre massif. These 2 specimens, therefore, are 

 from Choco on the Colombian side of the international boundary. 



Dr. Nelson named the genus in honor of Colonel George W. 

 Goethals, head of the Panama Canal Commission, in recognition of his 

 assistance to the naturalists, including E. A. Goldman, engaged in 

 the Biological Survey of the Canal Zone. 



AMAZILIA DECORA (Salvin) : Charming Hummingbird, Colibri 

 Encantador 



Polyerata decora Salvin, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, vol. 7, April 1891, p. 377. 

 (Southern slopes of Volcan de Chiriqui, Chiriqui, Panama.) 



