482 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
COLIBRI THALASSINUS (Swainson). 
MEXICAN VIOLET-EAR. 
Adult male—Above metallic green or bronze-green, darker or 
duller on pileum; tail metallic bluish green or greenish blue (middle 
rectrices sometimes green or even bronze-green) crossed by a broad 
subterminal band of blue-black; remiges dark brownish slate or 
dusky, very faintly glossed with bronzy purplish or violet, the 
secondaries more or less glossed at tip and on edges with metallic 
green or bronze-green; loral, suborbital, and auricular regions rich 
metallic dark violet-blue, this sometimes invading, somewhat, sides 
of neck; malar region, chin, and throat bright metallic green (varying 
from slightly bluish to yellowish emerald green), each feather with a 
darker mesial streak or spot; center of chest dark metallic blue or 
violet-blue, this passing into metallic-green laterally; breast, sides, 
flanks, and abdomen metallic green or bronze-green, duller posteriorly, 
where sometimes slightly broken by faint pale grayish brown or pale 
grayish buff tips or margins to the feathers; under tail-coverts 
metallic green or bronze-green, margined or edged with pale buffy 
brownish or grayish buffy; bill dull black; iris dark brown; feet dusky 
gtayish brown; length (skins), 103-122 (114); wing, 63-70 (66.9); 
tail, 39-45 (42.3); culmen, 18-22 (20.2). 
Adult female.—Similar to the adult male, but smaller and slightly 
duller in coloration; length (skins), 103-112 (107); wing, 60-63 (61); 
tail, 35.5-40 (37.5); culmen, 19-22 (20.3).° 
Young.—Similar to adult female, but much duller in coloration, 
the upper tail-coverts and feathers of rump (sometimes pileum also) 
narrowly and indistinctly margined with pale grayish buffy; green 
of under parts much duller and suffused with grayish, the feathers 
indistinctly margined terminally with pale grayish, and blue of chest 
absent or slightly indicated. 
Southern Mexico, in States of Guanajuato, Mexico (Temascaltepec; 
Ajusco; Tetelco; Chimalapa; Valley of Mexico; Hacienda Eslava), 
Hidalgo (Reél del Monte), Puebla, Vera Cruz (Jalapa; Cérdova; 
@ Six specimens. b Sixteen specimens. 
‘ Ex- 
Locality. Wing. | Tail. | posed 
lculmen. 
MALES. , 
Nine adult males from southern Mexico...........--..--- 222.20 e cece eee eee 67.3 | 42.9 20.8 
Seven adult males from Guatemala..........-... 0.222 e eee eee ee pence ences 66.3 41.6]. 19.3 
FEMALES. 
Five adult females from southern Mexico (Vera Cruz, Michoacén, and Oaxaca)..| 60.6]. 37.4 20.6 
One adult female (?) from Chiapas. ..........- 260-2. 2 see cece eee ceee eee eee 63 | +38 19 
