ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 99 



brilliant with that of T. moscMlus (!) (which, so far as I have seen, is 

 never the case with the other species), and it has, he says, more of 

 a red than an orange gloss," and the tints are " exquisitely splen- 

 did" ; a perfectly accurate description of the California bird, but not 

 of the other, which has the gorget orange, and not at all brilliant. To 

 come a little nearer to our own time, we have Audubon, who, in his 

 "Birds of America" (8vo edition, Vol. IV, p. 202), thus describes 

 the SelaspJwrus rufus as he knew it from the specimens collected 

 on the Blue Mountains of the Columbia River and at Nootka 

 Sound by Messrs. Nuttall and Townsend : " Tail rather long, 

 broad, graduated, the lateral feathers four and a half twelfths of an 

 inch shorter than the cetitral ; the latter are extremely broad, 

 measuring four and a half twelfths across, and the rest gradually 

 diminish to the lateral, which are very narrow, all obtusely pointed." 

 Not a word, it will be noticed, is said of the notch on the first 

 rectrices from the central ones. The throat is also stated to be 

 "splendent fire-red," etc. Baird, in the "Birds of North America" 

 (1860), p. 134, in his description of the S. rnfns, says that "the 

 tail is strongly cuneate ; the outer feather .40 of an inch shorter 

 than the middle, which projects .14 of an inch beyond the rest. T/te 

 outer feather is very narrow, not exceeding .11 of an inch in ividth ; 

 the rest widen and lengthen rapidly to the central one, which is 

 very broad (.35 of an inch) ; the central feathers, are all ovate-acu- 

 ninate. The entire throat, including a short ruff on the side of the 

 neck (about .40 of an inch long), is metallic red, of the same shade 

 as in the Ruby-throat, although with brassy reflections in some 

 lights." Gould, in his " Monograph of the Trochilidrx',^' has appar- 

 ently confused the two species together, but he makes no mention 

 of the notched rectrices, but states they are all of a " broad lanceolate 

 form," and his figures would seem to be taken from the California 

 bird. I might go on and multiply the instances where writers in 

 their descriptions of S. rvfus have spoken only of the birds with the 

 narrow rectrices, although, as in Mr. Gould's case, they may have 

 had both Californian and Mexican specimens before them, but, 

 regarding them as one species, they have always selected for their 

 descriptions the specimens with the brilliant throats (as being in 

 more perfect plumage, as they supposed), rather than the duller- 

 throated examples, and so these last have escaped receiving a dis- 

 tinctive name, as they deserved. But I think enough has been 

 said to show that authors generally, and the older ones especially, 



