NOVTTATES ZOOLOOIOAB XXIX. 1922. 407 



America and in Chapman's admirable Distrib. Bird-life Colombia this species is 

 left out ! Chapman left several midoubtedly Colombian species unmentioned, 

 if only known from Bogota skins. It would, however, have been most useful to 

 call attention to them !) 



1158. Thalurania furcata fissilis Berl. & Hart. = Thalurania furcata fissilis. 



Thalurania furcata fissilis Berlepach & Hartert, Nov. Zool. ix. p. 87 (1902 — " In regione fluminis 

 Caura dicti"). 



Type : ^ ad., Suapure, Cauxa River, Venezuela, 15 . xii . 1 899. S. M. Klages leg, 



(Simon, Hist. Nat. des Trochilidae, p. 303, 1921, calls this form Thalurania 

 refulgena forficata. I cannot agree to this. First of all, if subspecies are recog- 

 nised, refulgens cannot be anything but a subspecies of Th. furcata, and the name 

 forficata cannot be used for the form from the Caura Eiver. It is true that I had 

 overlooked it, or at least omitted to quote it in the Tierreich, Lief. 9, but it is 

 somewhat experimental to accept it at all. Berlepsch had examined the type 

 of Th. forficata and beUeved it to be the Cayenne form. That the locality Para 

 is wrong is beyond doubt. In any case most certainly Heine had no specimens 

 from the Caura River ; he might possibly have had one from British Guiana, 

 though in 1860 skins from there were very rare, but I doubt that the British 

 Guiana bird is quite the same as the Caura one ; as Berlepsch and I said in 1902, 

 " the bills of fissilis are mostly longer " than in birds from British Guiana. In 

 fact they are rather stronger, stouter ; the wings measure as follows : 



Caura River : ^,^ ad. : 53, 54, 54, 55, 55, 56, 56 mm. 



British Guiana : <Jc? ad. : 52, 53, 53, 53, 54, 55, 55, 56 mm. 

 There is therefore no constant difference in the wings, nor is there one in colour. 

 Nevertheless it is doubtful if the two forms can be united, and it is not wise 

 to replace the name fissilis by forficata ; the type of the latter is in the Heine 

 Museum.) 



1159. Thalurania balzani Simon = Thalurania eriphile balzani. 

 Thalurania balzani Simon, Nov. Zool. iii. p. 259 (1896 — Yungas in Bolivia). 

 Cotype (mentioned I.e.) : 3* ad., Yungas. Dr. Balzan leg. 



1160. Thalurania eriphile baeri Hellm. = Thalurania eriphile baeri. 

 Thalurania eriphile baeri Hellmayr, BvM. B.O. Club, xxi. p. 27 (1907 — Goyaz, Brazil). 



Type : c? ad.. State of Goyaz, 650 m., April 1906. No. 2073 Baer Coll. 

 G. A. Baer leg. 



I quite agree wijih Hellmayr that this is a subspecies of eriphile, though 

 Simon treats it as a species. I go even further and consider balzani a subspecies 

 of eriphile, as the presence of the few gUttering feathers on the forehead — ^moreover, 

 as they are not strongly ghttering, but more glossy — does not seem to me a specific 

 character in a geographically representative form. Doubtless several other 

 forms of Thalurania hitherto looked upon as species must be subspecifically relited 

 to others, but I cannot at present discuss them all, especially as the distribution 

 of some of them is not in all cases sufficiently known. 



1161. Thalurania simoni Hellm. = Thalurania simoni. 



Thalurania simoni Hellmayr, Bull. B.O. Club, xix. p. 8 (1906 — TefE6 on the Rio Solimoes, Brazil), 

 Type : ^ ad., Teffe, 19. v. 1906. W, Hoffmanns leg. No. 664. 



