676 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [VolY. 



1852. Martin, W. C. L. A | General History | uf | Hiiiuming-Birds, | or the | Tro- 



cliilidte : | ATitli especial reference to tlie | collection of J. Gould, F. R. S.< &c. 

 I now exhibiting in the | Gardens of the Zoological Society of London. | By | 

 W. C. L. Martin, | late one of the Scientific Officers of the Zoological | Society 

 of London. | — | Loudon: | H. G. Bohn, York Street, Gov cut Garden. | 1852. 

 1 vol. sm. 16mo. pp. i-A'ii, 1 1., pp. 1-232, frontisp. and pll. col'd, 1-3, 3 *, 4-14. 



I also find this work tited ag ■ 12mo., 1853 "; liut this may not indicate a different edition. 

 The work seems to ha^e 1 leeii desisiied as a sort of contimiation of, or supplement to, the Hum- 

 ming-birds of Jardiue's Naturalist's Library : and it was in fact afterward made one of the 

 Tols. of that notable collection. I have handled the vol. both as a separate work and as one 

 of the Wat. Libr. ; the title and collation are identical, excepting that the date is carefully 

 erased in the Wat. lAbr. binding. "NYhcn found in this connection there is absolutely nothing 

 to show what vol. of the series it is intended for. — Omitting the unnumbered vol. called 

 " General History of Man," it would make Tol. XLI of the Kat. Lihr.; counting the Gen. 

 Hist, of Man as one, it would be Yol. XLII ; there being 40 vols, of the series without either 

 of these two. — But the copy examined is stamped on the back "Hummingbirds, Yol. Ill"; 

 going by this token, the work makes Yol. YII bis of the Bird Series, the two regular Hum- 

 ming-bird volumes being resjyectively Yols. YI and YII. 



It is a modest treatise of much merit, as the author's name would lead us to anticipate. 

 The arrangement of the genera is according to Bonaparte. Some 175 spp. altogether are 

 treated, and, on the 15 (not 14) coloied plates and the frontispiece are figured the following : 



Frontisp., Docimastes cnsiferus. PI. 1, Petasophora inlata ; 2, Heliotlirix auntus ; 3, Cam- 

 pylopterus obscurus ; 3*, Topaza pyra; 4, Jifnirciera torqiiata,- 5, Aglceactis ruprcipcnnis ; 6, 

 Helianthea eos ; 7, Chrysuronia cenone; 8, Heliangelus tnavors ; 9, Oreotrochilus chi'mborazo ; 

 10, Mamphomicroji heteropogon ; 11, Oxypogon lincleni ; 12, Spathtira underwoodii ,- 13, Eriopu.i 

 cupreiventris ; 14, Gouldia conversi. 



1853. BuURClER, J. Xouvelle espece du genre Metallnra [priinolinus], Gonld. <^Bev. 



ot Mag. de Zool, v, 1853, pp. 295. 296. 



1851'. Gould, J. Descriptious of Fire New Species of Hunnning Birds. <^P. Z.S., 

 xxi, 1853, pp. 61, 62. 



EeliantheOt iris, H. aurora, Heliangelus viola, Trochilus ( ?) cyanocollis, p. 61 ; I. ( ?) 



foriccps, p. 62. 



1853. Gori-D, J. Observations on the Nests of Humming Birds [Trochilidae]. <^P. 

 Z. S., xxi, 1853, p. 100. 



1853. Gox'LD, J. Descriptions of Two Ncav Species of Humming Birds from Peru. 

 < P. Z. S., xxi, 18.53, p. 109. 

 Spathura cissiura, Calothorax micrurits. 

 1853. Gould, J. On some new species of Trochilidte. < Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, 2d ser., 

 xi, 1853, pp. 466, 467. 

 From P. Z. S., Mar. 25, 1851, pp. 115, 116, q. v. 



1853. Mi'XTER, W. Abwesenheit der Furcula am Skelet eines Trochilus. <; Zcitsclir. 

 gesammt. I\^atunvis.s.,\, 1853, p. 18. 

 Xot seen — title from Giebel. 



1853. Verrkaux, J. , and Yerreaux, E. Note du genre Lophornis Ch. Bp.— Lophornis 



An>rreauxii Boiu'c. < Bev. ci Mag. de ZooI.,t, 1853, p. 193, pi. 6. 



1854. Bonaparte, C. L. Talleau [sic] des Oiseaux-Mouches. <i?er. etMag. deZool, 



vi, Mai, 1854, pp. 248-257. (Aussi 8epar6ment, Paris, Ragon, 1854 ; 8vo, pp. 12. ) 

 Conspectus Troohilorum: 80 genres, 322 especes: "le squelette de mes etudes sur les Oi- 

 seaux-Mouches." Les noms seulement, sans descriptions. 



The year 1854 was a sad one for the Hummers. Two deadly assaults were made upon the 

 literature of the family, by Bonaparte in Fr.ance, and by Eeichenbach in Germany: with the 

 result of making confusion worse confounded in the generic nomenclature. Both these au- 

 thors opened the flood-gates, and fairly inundated the subject with numberless new names, 

 few of which were needed, none of which were characterized with regard for proprieties, and 

 some of which duplicated each other. What with these authors' extr.-ivagancies, and the 

 still further loosening of the reins of judicious moderation in the hands of Mulsant in 1866 

 and subsequently, the Hummers were probably as badly abused as any family of birds what- 

 ever. They have been fairly overwhelmed with a mass of synonymy. There are to-day 

 scarcely fewer genera of Hummers than species ; and, if we count the different application 



