424 Mr. E. Hartert — Various 



genus Pygmornis must undoubtedly be united with it, as it 

 cannot be sharply separated from Pha'ethornis, such forms as 

 P. squnlidus, and especially P. nqmrumii, Bouc., completely 

 bridging over the gap between the two groups. Salvin's 

 treatment of the species of this somewhat difficult genus is 

 no doubt excellent. With regard to P. emilice, however, I 

 may say that it is impossible to draw a well-defined line 

 between it and P. ffuyi, and that it can only rank as a sub- 

 species of the latter. 



Boucard has described several new species and split the 

 genus up into seven genera, after the Reichenbachian and 

 Bonapartean fashion. None of these genera have any claim 

 to generic rank, according to the ideas of modern Trochi- 

 lidists, but two of his species are excellent. With P. emilioe 

 Boucard unites P. yaruqui, but I think that the wholly steel- 

 blue tail of the adult bird, the darker colour of the under- 

 parts, the presence of malar and superciliary stripes even in 

 old birds, the whitish colour of these stripes in young birds, 

 and other less conspicuous characters distinguish it suffi- 

 ciently well. The typical P. superciliosus is known to 

 Boucard only from " Guiana,^^ while he justly separates 

 P. guianensis, from several places in British Guiana, and also 

 the birds from the Upper Amazons, under the name of 

 P. consohrinus. All these three are united by Salvin under 

 the name of P. superciliosus. I find that Cayenne birds 

 (typical P. superciliosus^ are quite distinct, being greyish 

 brown on throat and breast, without a well-defined gular 

 stripe, and larger. All the specimens from the Andes and 

 the Upper Amazons are lighter below, with a more dis- 

 tinct gular stripe, smaller, and the bill finer. Therefore 

 I cannot unite them with the dark P. superciliosus of 

 Cayenne. The small light form from British Guiana, which 

 Boucard named P. guianensis, is very similar to the Andean 

 bird, P. moorei, but differs from it in being still Hghter, 

 more rusty and not so brown below, especially on the abdo- 

 men and sides of the throat. It may therefore stand as a 

 subspecies. This is not the only case in which we have in 

 British Guiana a form more resembling, and even hardly or 



