THE HUMMING BIRDS. 337 



Costa's Humming Bird. Calypte costw (Bourc). 

 (Plate xxxix.) 



Omismya costw Bourc., Rev. Zool. 1839, 294. 



Calypte costw Gould, Mod. Troch. pt. xi, 1856, pi. 7; vol. in, 1861, pi. 134. — Coor., 

 Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 360.— B. B. and R., Hist. N. Am. B. n, 1874, 457, pi. 47, fig. 8. 

 Costa's Calypte (Gould). 



La Leucaire de Costa (Mulsant and Verreaux). 

 Oiseau-Moucbe de Costa (Bourcikr). 

 Chupatuirto de gola y cabeza violada (D'Oca). 



Range. — Southern California, Lower California, Arizona, and western 

 Mexico. 



Sp. Char. — Adult male with top of head, gorget and ruff brilliantly 

 burnished metallic violet, changing to royal purple, blue, and sometimes 

 even to green in certain lights; length about 2.75-3.20, wing 1.75-1.00, 

 tail about 1.10, exposed culmen, 0.65-0.68. Adult female with top of 

 head dull grayish brown anteriorly, changing to bronze or bronze-green 

 posteriorly, like color of back, etc.; chin and throat grayish white, some- 

 times spotted with metallic violet; basal portion of lateral tail-feather 

 pale grayish brown; length about 3.55-3.70, wing 1.70-l.SO, tail 1.05, 

 exposed culmen 0.65-0.70. 



Adult male (No. 99215, Tucson, Arizona, March 18, 1881; E. W. Nel- 

 son): Whole top of head, chin, throat, ear-coverts and much elongated 

 feathers (extending nearly 1 inch from chin-angle) on side of throat 

 richly burnished metallic violet, changing to royal purple and blue in 

 different lights; rest of upper parts, except remiges, bronze-green ; 

 remiges dusky slate, faintly glossed with purplish; tail (except middle 

 pair of feathers) grayish dusky glossed with green, this more distinct 

 toward middle feathers, the inner web of outer feather considerably 

 paler, and the three outer feathers darker near tip. A small white 

 spot behind eye. Lower foreneck and chest white; sides and flanks 

 deep metallic bronze green; median line of breast and belly pale gray- 

 ish or dull grayish white; silky tufts between rump and flanks, pure 

 white; under tail-coverts bronze-green centrally, white around margins. 

 Bill and feet black. Length (skin) 3.15, wing 1.75, tail 1.05, middle 

 feathers 0.15 shorter, exposed culmen 0.68. 



Adult female (No. 99216, Tucson, Arizona, May, 1884; E. W. Nelson) : 

 Top of head dull light brownish gray, passing on occiput into dull me- 

 tallic bronze-green and this into lighter bronze-green on back, scapu- 

 lars, wing-coverts, rump, upper tail-coverts, and middle pair of tail- 

 feathers; the feathers of the back, etc., showing, in certain lights, very 

 indistinct terminal margins of pale buffy grayish; remiges dull brown- 

 ish slate, very faintly glossed with purplish; rectrices next to middle 

 pair metallic bronze-green, broadly tipped with black; next pair simi- 

 lar, but black much more extensive and the tip white (for about .05 of 

 an inch); next pair with white tip much wider, and the basal portion 

 green only next to the black band, the remaining part pale brownish 

 H. Mis. 129, pt. 2 22 



