TROCHILID^ — THE HUMMING-BIRDS. 459 



Wing, 1.65; tail, 1.20; bill, .41. Gorget dull velvet^y-crimson, the 

 feathers ochraceous beneath the surface. Outer primary apparently 

 with its attenuated tip curved inward. Hob. Costa Rica . vav. flammula} 

 B. Feathers of the metallic gorget much elongated laterally. 



S. rufus. Above chiefly rufous, overlaid by green (except in yS*. scintilla, 

 which is almost wholly green above) ; tail-feathers rufous with a shaft- 

 streak of dusky. Gorget fiery red. Attenuated tip of outer primary curved 

 inwards. 



Wing, l.GO; tail, 1.30; bill, .65. Rufous prevailing above; gorget 

 very brilliant. Hab. Western Province of North America, from East 

 Humboldt Mountains to the Pacific. North to Sitka, south to Mira- 

 dor ............ var. 7'ufus. 



Wing, 1.35; tail, 1.00 to 1.10; bill, .42. Continuous green above; 

 gorget not brilliant, but with a dusty appearance. Tail less graduated. 

 Hah. Costa Rica and Chiriqui . . . ... . var. scintilla? 



Selasphorus rufus, Swainson. 



RUFOTJS-BACKED HUMMING-BIRD. 



Trochihis rufus, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 497. — Aud. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 555, pi. 

 ccclxxii. Selasphorus rufus, Swainson, F.-Bor. Am. II, 1831, 324. — Aud. Birds 

 Am. IV, 1842, 200, pi. celiv. — Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 134. —Cooper & Suckley, 

 164. — Dall & Bannister, Tr. Chic. Ac. I, 1869, 275 (Alaska). — Finsch, Abh. Nat. 

 Ill, 1872, 29 (Alaska). —Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 355. Trochilus collaris, Lath. 

 (Bonaparte). Trochilus sitkensis, Eathke (Bonaparte). Ormjsmia ' sasin. Lesson 

 (Bonaparte). 



Sp. Char. Tail strongly cuneate and wedge-shaped. Upper parts, lower tail-coverts, 

 and breast cinnamon. A trace of metallic green on the crown, which sometimes extends 

 over the back, never on the belly. Throat coppery red, with a well-developed ruflf of 

 the same; below this a white collar. Tail-feathers cinnamon, edged or streaked at the 

 end with purplish-brown. Female with the rufous of the back covered or replaced with 

 green ; less cinnamon on the breast. Traces only of metallic feathers on the throat. Tail 

 rufous, banded with black and tipped with white ; middle feathers glossed with green at 

 the end. Tail still cuneate. Length of male, 3.50 ; wing, 1.55 ; tail, 1.30. 



Hab. West coast of North America, and across from Gulf of California to the Upper 

 Rio Grande Valley, and along the table-lands of Mexico, south ; in Middle Province east 

 to East Humboldt Mountains. 



1 Selasphorus (platycercus, var. ^) flammula (Salv.). Selasphorus fiammula, Salvin, P. Z. S. 

 1864 (Costa Rica). (Described above from specimen in Mr. Lawrence's collection.) 



2 Selasphortis {rufus var. ?) scintilla (Gould). Selasphorus scintilla, Gould, P. Z. S. 1850, 

 162, Monog. Troch. Ill, pi. cxxxviii. The foregoing species are so similar in all essential 

 respects to the northern S. platycercus and -S". rufus, that it is exceedingly probable that they 

 are merely the southern forms of those species. Both differ in exactly the same respects from 

 their northern representatives, namely, in smaller size and less burnished throat, and to a very 

 slight degree only in form. The only specimen of the »S'. flammula that we have examined is a 

 badly shot male in Mr. Lawrence's collection ; what appears to be the outer piimary in this 

 specimen is not attenuated at the tip, which is curved inward, instead of acutely attenuated and 

 turned outward as in 2}latycercus ; the wings are badly cut with shot, however, aud the first 

 primary may be wanting. 



