260 TEOCHILIDiE. 



We have a series of specimens of this species obtained by Mrs. H. H. Smith betweea 

 Acapulco and the mountains of the State of Guerrero, and by Mr. W. B. Richardson 

 on the western side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec at Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec 

 city, which we have hitherto considered distinct from /. doubledayi and have called 

 /. nitida ; and we should still have so treated them had not Mr. Ridgway informed us 

 that he had compared a specimen in the United States National Museum from Dos 

 Arroyos and found it to agree exactly with the type of /. doubledayi. This fact 

 and the evident variation existing between individuals of this bird now compel us to 

 place I. nitida as a synonym of /. doubledayi. Mrs. Smith's specimens were all 

 collected in the months of September and October, Mr. Richardson's in February. 

 The heads of the latter are a little greener on the crown than the others, due probably 

 to the feathers being older ; but all these birds have deep blue throats and steel-blue 

 under tail-coverts and thus differ slightly from the Chinautla specimen of /. doubledayi. 



"We have no notes of the habits of this species, the range of which seems to be 

 restricted to the sea-coast of South-western Mexico and the low-lying land immediately 

 adjoining. 



b*- Sexus similes, mas sicut femina vestitus. 



PH^EOPTILA. 

 Phaoptila, Gould, Mon. Troch. v. t. 340 (July 1861) ; Salv. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvi. p. 63. 



A genus containing a single species the range of which is given below. Its 

 position in the systematic arrangement of the TrochilidiE has been altered many 

 times. Gould placed it near lache, which we think is its right place. Mr. Elliot 

 separated the two genera nearly as widely as possible, but gave no reasons for so 

 doing. Mr. Ridgway locates it next Amazilia. 



In many points of structure Phceoptila resembles lache. The serration of the 

 maxilla is similar in both, so also is the denudation of the nasal covers and the inter- 

 raraal space, as well as the general colour of the female. 



Phoeoptila differs from lache in the coloration of the sexes, the males in the latter 

 genus being brightly tinted, whilst in the former the male is dull and hardly differs 

 from the female except in the colour of the tail, in which the difference is one not 

 unfrequently seen in the Trochilidae, the bases of the outer feathers and their tips 

 being pale grey, those feathers of the male being uniform. 



1. Fhaeoptila sordida. 



Cyanomyia (?) sordida, Gould, Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1859, iv. p. 97 ' ; Scl. P. Z. S. 1859, p. 386 \ 

 Ph(P.optila sordida, G:ou\dL,M.on.Tvoch. v. t. 340 (July 1861)'; de Oca, La Nat. iii. p. 210*- 



Salv. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xvi. p. 63 \ 

 Doleromya sordida, Boucard, Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon, xx. p. 282 ". 

 Phaoptila zonura, Gould, Intr. Troch. p. 170'; de Oca, La Xat. iii. p. 304'. 



