208 Mr.W. Goodh]hm—Or?iitho/offical 
9000 feet, but we were not fortunate enough to obtain 
specimens ; for when it would have been possible to have shot 
them we had no guns with us. 
Of some species of this group we killed many more ex- 
amples than we intended, for the reason that often we could 
not tell exactly at what species we were shooting. Most of 
the members of the genus Eriocnemis, for example, are very 
easily confounded on the wing, and in some localities several 
of the species are found together. It was only by shooting 
many specimens of E. luciani thit we occasionally secured 
one of the rarer E. mosquera, which is very different in the 
hand, but almost impossible to distinguish on the wing. And 
this is the case with many of the genera. Each of them 
has its characteristic habits and flight, but in most cases the 
different species look much the same in life. It is only when 
a specimen is held in the hand and turned to the light in the 
right position that the beautiful colours are seen to advantage. 
The brightest-coloured may look the plainest of birds when 
on the wing. 
Fam. CvpsELiDiE. 
~; 433. Ch.etura zoNARis (Shaw). 
Two males and one female. We found these Swifts at alti- 
tudes of from 10,000 to 15,500 feet, but more frequently at 
the higher elevation. They fly in flocks in the early morning 
and evening, skimming close over the grassy slopes of the 
mountains. Their stomachs contained chiefly small moth^. 
Personally we found them confined to the Eastern Andes, 
but it is probable that they change their locality at certain 
seasons and visit the Western Andes. In July we saw 
numbers of them flying about the ledges of the precipitous 
"quebradas" east of Quito, where we were told that they 
nested. The female is more brownish on the head, especially 
about the forehead, which is whitish brown. The feathers on 
the vent are also edged with white. 
Fam. C A P R I M r L G I D .E. 
434. Stenopsis ruficertix (Scl.). 
A male from Papallacta, Eastern Andes (11,000). 
