1864.] MR. 0. SALVIN ON NEW BIRDS FROM COSTA RICA. 585 
referred to the genus Anthocephala, and described by Mr. Gould 
as Trochilus castaneiventris, P. Z. 8. 1850, p. 163. 
We thus have four species comprised in the genus, which may thus 
be shortly characterized. 
O. leucaspis. White gorget. 
O. calolema. Purple-red gorget. 
O. hemileuca. Violet-blue gorget. 
O. castaneiventris. Under surface chestnut. 
All have a brilliant green head, and in two, viz. O. leucaspis and 
O. calolema, the chest is brilliant green also. Al! four have the post- 
ocular spot of white so generally found amongst the T’rochilide elon- 
gated into a stripe running down each side of the neck. 
The place of Oreopyra in the family Trochilide is evidently next 
to Delattria, and near to Celigena, Lamprolema, and Heliopedica. 
Comparing Oreopyra with the first-named genus, in both we find 
the rounded gorget, the slightly depressed beak, the moderately 
forked tail, and the elongated postocular stripe. In Delattria the 
crown is unadorned, or nearly so; in Oreopyra it is brilliant green. 
Without, then, discussing the validity of the genus, which seems 
doubtful, and which would raise a long and intricate question, I 
would suggest that Oreopyra should be removed from the neighbour- 
hood of Heliomaster and Eustephanus, where it has been placed by 
Mr. Gould, to next Delattria and near Lamprolema, Celigena, and 
Heliopedica, its Central American allies*. 
15, CHALYBURA MELANORRHOA, Sp. n. 
C. viridescens, gula et pectore toto coruscantioribus, obscuris : 
uropygio @neo-purpurascente, caude tectricibus superioribus 
purpurascenti-nigris ; ventre fuliginoso, via viridt lavato : crisso 
nigro, vix purpurascente tincto : alis purpurascenti-fuliginosis ; 
cauda fere nigra, eneo-purpurascente lavata: rostro nigra, 
mandibule inferioris parte basali carnea, pedibus carneis. 
Long. tota 4°5, alee 2°6, caudee 1°75, rostri a rictu 1°05. 
Hab. Costa Rica (Tucurrique). 
Affinis Chalybure isaure, Gould (P. Z. 8.1861, p. 198), ex Boca 
del Toro, Veragua, sed crisso nigro, non albo, valde distinguenda. 
This species with C. isaure forms a somewhat abnormal section of 
the genus Chalybura, Reich.; but the differences as seen from our 
present materials are hardly of sufficient importance to warrant a 
generic separation. They may be briefly stated as follows :—The 
plumage in the Chalybura is generally more brilliant ; the uropygium 
is nearly the same colour as the back, in the Costa Rica birds it is 
clearly defined. The plumed feathers of the crissum in the former 
are much more developed (see Mr. Gould’s remarks, J. c.). 
* Since the above was in type, I have received a paper by Mr. Lawrence, pub- 
lished in the ‘Annals of the Lyceum of Nat. Hist. of New York,’ in which he 
describes a supposed female of Panterpe insignis, Cab., in the Smithsonian Col- 
lection. From the description, I have no doubt the bird referred to is a female 
of Oreopyra castaneiventris—a very different bird. 
