THE HUMMING BIRDS. 335 



dusky, with very faint purplish gloss ; tail-feathers (except middle 

 pair) dull purplish black, with inner webs chiefly pale brownish gray, 

 the pair next to the middle ones strongly tinged or washed with metal- 

 lic green. A minute white spot immediately behind eye. Chest pale 

 brownish gray, the leathers with still paler (grayish white) terminal 

 margins; sides and flanks rather dull metallic brouze-greeu, inclining 

 to olive in some lights, the feathers indistinctly margined with pale 

 brownish gray; median lino of breast and belly similar, but paler on 

 account of greater width of the pale grayish margins: downy tufts 

 between rump and flanks pure white; under tail-coverts white with a 

 central longitudinal space of grayish olive glossed with green. Bill 

 and feet black. Length (skin), 3.75, wing 2.00, tail 1.40 (middle feath- 

 ers 0.25 shorter), exposed culmen, 0.68. 



Adult female (No. 6052, San Francisco, California, winter 1853-'54 ; 

 Dr. R. D. Cutts) : Whole top of head metallic bronze-green, less bright 

 than the back and becoming much duller on forehead; upper parts 

 otherwise as in the male, except three outer tail-feathers, the first of 

 which is dull brownish white at tip (for about 0.25 of an inch on outer 

 web), then black (for about 0.30 of an inch), the basal portion light 

 grayish brown ; second feather with whitish tip smaller and black sub- 

 terminal space larger, the basal portion chiefly metallic green ; third 

 with only a very narrow terminal edging of white, but otherwise like 

 the second; fourth with merely a blackish spot near tip of each web, 

 on edge, that on outer web reaching almost to the shaft. Lower parts 

 as in the male, but malar region, chin, and throat pale brownish gray, 

 the middle of the latter spotted with metallic red, the ear-coverts 

 grayish brown. Bill and feet black. Length (skin), 3.80; wing, 2.05; 

 tail, 1.15 (the outer feathers 0.05 shorter) ; exposed culmen, 0.70. 



Young male : Similarto the adult female, but tail different, the whitish 

 tips and blackish subtermmal spaces of the two outer feathers being 

 much less distinct. Autumnal specimens show metallic red feathers, 

 mixed with the first plumage, on crown and throat. 



Young female (No. 79671, Tejon Mountains, California, August 19, 

 1875 ; H. W. Henshaw) : Similar to the adult female, but feathers of 

 upper parts, particularly on those of rump and the upper tail-coverts, 

 very narrowly margined at tips with pale grayish buffy. 



Adult males vary somewhat in the color of the crown and throat, 

 some being more purplish red than others. One (No. 5501, Petaluma, 

 California, E. Samuels), has the crown glossed with steel-blue in cer- 

 tain lights. 



Females with metallic feathers on the throat seem to be the rule 

 rather thau the exception in this species; at least, of the 11 specimens 

 now before me, 8 have the throat thus ornamented, though the extent 

 of the metallic red spotting varies greatly. 



Perhaps the most beautiful of North American Humming Birds, 

 this species., named by M, Lesson after Mme, Anna, Duchesse de 



