INTRODUCTION. xxxix 



" Found on the edge of the yirgin forest ; always solitary; generally in dark and lonely places^ and very rest- 

 less. Irides hazel ; upper mandible black, lower yellow with a black tip ; legs and feet flesh-colour." 

 Habitat. Ecuador. 



Allied to the last form are the members of the genus Threnetes : these birds are not distinguished by any bril- 

 liancy of colouring, but two of them are very prettily marked about the throat and chest. 



Surinam and the adjacent countries are given as the habitat of T. leucurus, while the banks of the Rio Napo 

 are known to be the home of the bird I have called cervinicauda ; and the sombre-plumaged T. Antonice is a native 

 of Cayenne and the Guianas. I believe that the females of all three species are clothed like the males. 



Genus Threnetes, Gould. 



(Qprjv-qrrjs, a mourner.) 

 Generic characters. 



Male, — Bill lengthened, arched, and pointed ; wings moderately long, and rounded at the tip ; tail short, square, 



or rounded ; tarsi partially clothed ; feet very small ; Imid toe and nail short. 



13. Threnetes leucurus Vol. I. PL 13. 



Threnetes leucurus, Reichenb. Aufz. der Col. p. 15 ; Id. Troch, Enum. p. 12. 

 Habitat. Surinam and British Guiana. 



14. Threnetes cervinicauda, Gould ..... ..... Vol. I. PL 14. 



Habitat. Province of Quijos in Ecuador. 



15. Threnetes Antonio VoL I. PL 15. 



Aphantochroa Antoniae, Reichenb. Aufz. der Col. p. 15 ; Id. Troch. Enum. p. 12. 



Habitat. Cayenne and the Guianas. 



I now enter upon the genus Phaethornis, the members of which are so widely dispersed, that the remark 

 I made on the extended distribution of the entire group is almost applicable to this section of it. In the body of 

 this work I have figured nearly thirty species under this generic appellation, including therein the smaller kinds to 

 which Bonaparte gave the name of Pygmornis, a term I shall now adopt for these little birds : but a further sub- 

 division of the group I cannot for a moment entertain ; the separation of the P. Bourcieri into a distinct genus, for 

 which the term Ametrornis has been proposed by Dr. Reichenbach, and of the P. Guyi under that of Toxoteuches by 

 Dr. Cabanis, being, in my opinion, quite unnecessary. 



Genus Phaethornis, Swains. 



16. Phaethornis Eurynome .......... . . VoL I. PL 16. 



Phaethornis Eurynomus^ Jard. Nat. Lib. Humming-Birds, vol. ii. p. 150. 



Phaetornis eurynome, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. tom. i. p. 67, Phaetornis, sp. 5. 



Trochilus melanotis, " Licht." Nordm. Erm. Reis. Atl. p. 2. 



Phcetornis melanotis, Gray & Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 104, Ph(Ztornis, sp. 3 ; Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. tom. i. 



p. 67, Phaetornis, sp. 3. 

 Ptyonornis Eurynome, Reichenb. Aufz. der Col. p. 14 ; Id. Troch. Enum. p. 12. 

 Phaethornis Eurynome, Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein. Theil iii. p. 9. 

 Habitat. Brazil. 



17. Phaethornis malaris. 



Phaethornis superciliosus Vol. I. PL 17. 



Phaethornis malaris^ Gray & Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 101, sp. 2 ; Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. tom. L p. 67, sp. 2 ; 



Cab. et Hein. Mus. Hein. Theil iii. p. 9. 

 Colihri a longue queue de Cayenne, BuflF. PL Enl. 600, 3. 

 Brin blanc mdle, Vieill. Ois. Dor. tom. i. p. 37, pL 17. 

 Trochilus superciliosus. Id. Enc. Meth. Orn. part 2. p. 549, sp. 5 ; Less. Hist. Nat. des Col. p. 35, pi. 6 ; Id. Traite 



d'Orn. p. 288; Jard. Nat. Lib. Humming-Birds, vol. ii. p. 119, pi. 26 ; Cab. Schomb. Reise Guian. iii. 



p. 708 ; Burm. Th. Bras. iL p. 323, 



