PHAETHOENIS.— PYGMOENIS. 319 



According to de Oca this is a very rare species in Mexico, a statement confirmed by 

 recent observation, for we are not aware of any specimens having been obtained in the 

 State of Vera Cruz since M. Boucard sent the birds from San Andres Tuxtla to M. Salle, 

 as recorded by Mr. Sclater in 1857. It occurs, however, on the eastern side of the 

 Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as Mr. Richardson secured specimens there at Chimalapa in 

 March and April 1890 at an altitude of 4000 feet above sea-level. In British Honduras 

 and thence southwards in Eastern Guatemala P. longirostris becomes more common. 

 We found it fairly abundant in the heavily forested country of Northern Vera Paz in 

 February 1862 at an altitude of about 1200 feet, and also near the sea-level at Yzabal. 

 It also occurs in Eastern Nicaragua and in Costa Rica. It is rare in many parts of the 

 State of Panama, bat not uncommon on the line of Railway, and passes beyond our 

 limits into Northern Colombia and Western Ecuador. 



P. longirostris was discovered by Delattre, and described in 1843. Shortly afterwards 

 M. Salle, during his visit to Nicaragua, procured the specimens which were named 

 Trochilus cephalws by Boucier and Mulsant. The same bird received yet another name 

 when Mr. Lawrence described the birds obtained during Lieut. Michler's expedition to 

 Darien as Phaethomis cassini, the types of which were examined by Count Berlepsch 

 and pronounced to be inseparable from P. longirostris. A near ally to this species in 

 South America is the widely ranging P. superciliosus (Linn.), which under somewhat 

 varying forms extends over the whole of the Amazons Valley and Guiana. From this 

 bird it differs in the greater width of the edges of the feathers of the lower back and 

 the greater whiteness of the tips of the outer rectrices. 



b^. Minores: cauda regulariter cuneata. 



PYGMORNIS. 



Pygmomis, Benaparte, Rev. Zool. 1854, p. 250; Salv. Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. svi. p. 280. 



This small form of Phaethomis contains eight species, which occupy nearly the same 

 area of South and Central America as their larger allies. Only one species is at all 

 common within our limits, a second, which is abundant in Colombia, just reaches our 

 southern frontier at Darien. 



Many writers on Trochilidse do not separate Pygmomis from Phaethomis ; but on the 

 whole we think it best to keep the two forms apait. Pygmornis, besides its small size, 

 has a rather differently constructed tail, the central feathers not being distinctly pro- 

 minent beyond the rest, but form the apex of a regular wedge. In the adult male the 

 tail is shorter than in the female. 



1. Pygmornis adolphi. 



Phaethomis adolphi, Bourc. MS. apud Gould, Mon. Ti-och. i. t. 35 (Sept. 1857) '; Scl. P. Z. S. 

 1856, p. 287 (descr. nulla) = ; 1859, pp. 367 \ 385 * ; Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 126 ' ; 1860, 



