254 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



examination of the ample series studied in this connection. The cen- 

 tral rectrices average more bronzy, less greenish, in L. lafresnayi than 

 in L. saul, but some specimens are practically indistinguishable in this 

 respect. The color of the outer rectrices seems to vary through wide 

 limits, too, as shown by a series of specimens in the collection of the 

 Carnegie Museum from the State of Santander, Colombia. In some of 

 these the outer rectrices are as white as in topotypical specimens of 

 L. saul from Quito, Ecuador, while in others they are rich buffy white, 

 comparing favorably with Bogota skins of L. lafresnayi. In short, 

 all the characters serving to separate these two forms are so evidently 

 unstable that the forms in question can scarcely be regarded as more 

 than conspecies. Clearly, therefore, a form resting on a combination 

 of these characters is open to suspicion. As a matter of fact, the only 

 character by which liriope may be recognized is the deeper, more cop- 

 pery bronze tinge of the central rectrices, and even this might fail in 

 a larger series. 



Simons took a single example of this hummingbird at San Jose, in 

 the Sierra Nevada, while Mr. Brown obtained three, at altitudes rang- 

 ing from 7,500 to ii,ooo feet. Although the writer was continually 

 on the watch for it he secured only the one specimen, shot at San 

 Miguel in March, feeding from the blossoms of a tree near the river. 

 From the known records it is fair to assign the species to the Subtrop- 

 ical Zone, ranging upward to the Temperate Zone, or from about 

 5,000 to 11,000 feet. * 



200. Helianthea phalerata (Bangs). 



Leucuria fhalerata Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XII, 1898, 174 

 (" Macotama " ; orig. descr. ; type now in coll. Mus. Comp. Z06I. ; meas.). — 

 Bangs, Auk, XVI, 1899, 138, pi. 2 ("Macotama"; habits).— Bangs, Proc. 

 Biol. Soc! Washington, XIII, 1899, 93 (Paramo de Macotama; crit.). — 

 Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, 1900,' 121, 139, 184 (El Libano ; 

 plum.; crit.). — Simon, Cat. Fam. Trochilids, 1921, 165 (descr.), 358 (ref- 

 erences ; range). 



Helianthea sp. Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist, XIII, 1900, 139 (El Libano). 



Helianthea phalerata Hartert, Tierreich, Lief. 9, 1900, 131 (references; 

 descr.; range). — Sharpe, Hand-List Birds, II, 1900, 126 (Sierra [Nevada] 

 de Santa Marta, in range). — Dubois, Syn. Avium, II, 1903, 1067 (ref. 

 orig. descr.; range). — Hellmayr, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, XIX, 1906, 29 

 (crit.). — Brabourne and Chubb, Birds S. Am., I, 1912, 128 (ref. orig. descr.; 

 range). — Cory, Field Mus. Z06I. Series, XIII, 19 18, 243 (references; range). 



