﻿Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire. 299 



Aruba and more common on the other islands seems to point 

 to the fact that it is a West-Indian form. 



11. Chrysolampis mosquitus (Linn.). 



Common on flowering trees. While on Curacao in the 

 beginning of June these birds were in moult, and. it was 

 impossible to obtain males in good plumage : they began to 

 get out of their moult by the end of my stay on Aruba. 



When I met with this beautiful Humming-bird I did not 

 know there was any question to settle about it, and did not 

 pay especial attention to it. I did, however, collect a series 

 of fine adult males, and, chiefly owing to the efforts of my 

 wife, eight specimens in dull plumage, all well skinned and 

 dissected. In looking over Mr. Salvias description in the 

 Cat. B. xvi. p. 114, I find the adult female described as 

 having the lateral tail-feathers bronzy black, but my skins 

 contravene this statement. According to my series the adult 

 female has the rectrices chestnut-red, with a broad subterminal 

 band of a purplish steel-blue, and tipped with white. They 

 appear to have sometimes, if very aged, some glittering 

 feathers along the middle of the throat. The young of both 

 sexes — according to my collection — have the tail purplish 

 black, and I have (in my own collection and among a 

 number of trade-skins) many intermediate stages. Gould 

 and Lesson have both figured the females as they really 

 are, with the red tail. As regards the name, it should be 

 written mosquitus and not moschitus, as shown before by 

 Berlepsch. Linnaeus in his Syst. Nat. ed. x. p. 120 (1758), 

 as well as in ed. xii. p. 192 (1766), wrote it mosquitus, and 

 it was only changed to moschitus by Gmelin. Linnseus very 

 probably meant to designate it a small mosquito-like bird. 



12. Chlorostilbon caribous, Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. H. New 

 York, x. (1874) p. 13. 



Not rare, but rather less common than the foregoing 

 species. Badly in moult. Berlepsch has shown (J. f. O. 

 1892, p. 87) that the name C. atala of Lesson is very 

 doubtful, and that the acceptance of Lawrence's name is 

 advisable. 



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