358 REPORT OV NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



tlio maneuver often; afc .siicli limes their notes are partieularly loiul and attract 

 atteutiou from a cousiderable tlistauce. 



A nest brought to me about the yiiddle of July, and which the young had just left, 

 was placed upon a dead flattened cone of Piniis contorta. It was composed of thin 

 strips of a gray bark, with a few spiders' webs on the outside ; the lining was similar, 

 but with a few small tufts of a cottony blossom from some tree ; the nest was just the 

 color of the cone and was admirably adapted to escape notice. Another nest con- 

 taining two nearly fledged young was found at about the same time, but was quite 

 unlike the one just described in construction and situation, being of the common 

 Humming Hird type and saddled upon a dead willow twig. One of the young birds 

 lived for about a week, becoming very tame and feeding greedilj' upon sirup. 



Genus CALOTHORAX Gray. 



Calothorax Gray, Gen. B., 1840, 13. Type, Cynanthus /Hci/er Swains. 



Lucifer Rkich., Synop. Av. Nat., 1849, pi. 30; Aufz. Colib., 18.54, 1:5; Troch. Enum. 



185;'), 10. Same type. 

 Cyanopogon "Reich." Bonap., Ann. Soc. Nat., 1854, 138. Same type. 

 Manilla Muls. and Verk., Classif. Troch., 18G5, 8G. Type, Calothorax pulchra GoULD. 



Generic Characters. — Bill much longer tliau tlie bead, distiuctly 

 cui'V^ed (except in C. "pulchra) ; tail forked, the three outer feathers 

 narrow, and plaiu purplish black, in adult males; gorget of adult 

 males rich metallic amethyst, or magenta, purple with violet and bhie 

 reflections; females with tail doubleroumled and deeplj'^ emarginate, 

 the three outer feathers rufous at base, then black, tipped with white ; 

 under partes light ochraceous. 



This genus is most nearly related to both Doricha, Reich.,* and 

 Acestrura, Gould,! between which it is nearly intermediate. In fact 

 the three should probably be merged into one genus, Calothorax, with 

 Doricha and Acestrura (including perhaps one or more subdivisions of 

 the former) as subgenera. 



The two known species of Calothorax are very much alike in colora- 

 tion, but differ iso decidedly in structural characters that little difficulty 

 need be experienced in identifying them. Their differential characters 

 are as follows : 



rt'. Bill with exposed culmen about one and a half times as long as the head, dis- 

 tinctly curved; adult male with outer primary broader, and outer pair of taii- 

 feathcrs very narrow, as well as pointed ; adult female with belly white, and 

 lateral pair of tail-feathers shorter than middle pair. IIau.: Table-lands of 

 Mexico, north to southern Arizona. 



C. /(/ci/e?- (Swains.). Lucifer J/innmiitr/ Bird. (Page 350. ) 

 a^. Bill witii exposed culmen only a little longer than 'the he.ad, much more slender, 

 and not decidedly curved ; adult male with outer primary narrower, and outer 

 pair of tail feathers much broader, and not pointed at euds; adult female with 

 belly butfy, only a little paler than breast, &c., and outer pair of tail-feathers 

 longer than middle pair. IIaij. : Southwestern Mexico (Oaxaca, &c.). 



C. pulchra Gould. Beautiful Bumming Bird. I 



* Doricha Rejch., Aufz. der Colib. 1853, 12. Type, Trochilus enicwuH Vieill. 

 tAccHtrura Gould, Introd. Troch., Oct. ed. 18G1, 01. Type, Ornismtja mulsanti BouRC, 

 X Calothorax pulchra Gould, Ann. Mag. N. H., 3d ser., iv, 1859, 07 ; Mon. Troch., in, 



pi. 144. — Manilla pulchra Mxu.fiXNr ami Vkrreaux, Hist. Nat. Ois.-Moneh. ,iy, 1877, 



30, pi. 30. 



