358 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



the maneuver often; at such times their notes are particularly loud and attract 

 attentiou from a considerable distance. 



A nest brought to me about the middle of July, and which the young had just left, 

 was placed upon a dead flattened cone of Pinus contorta. It was composed of thin 

 strips of a gray bark, with a few spiders' webs on the outside ; the lining was similar, 

 but with a few small tufts of a cottony blossom from some tree ; the nest was just the 

 color of the cone and was admirably adapted to escape notice. Another nest con- 

 taining two nearly fledged young was fouDd at about the same time, but was quite 

 unlike the one just described in construction and situation, being of the common 

 Humming Bird type and saddled upon a dead willow twig. One of the young birds 

 lived for about a week, becoming very tame and feeding greedily upon sirup. 



Genus CALOTHORAX Gray. 



Calothorax Gray, Gen. B., 1840, 13. Type, Cynanthus lucifer Swains. 



Lucifer Reich., Synop. Av. Nat., 1849, pi. 39; Aufz. Colib., 1854, 13; Troch. Enum. 



1855, 10. Same type. 

 Cyanopogon "Reich." Bonap., Ann. Soc. Nat., 1854, 138. Same type. 

 Manilla Muls. and Verr., Classif. Troch., 1865, 86. Type, Calothorax pulchra Gould. 



Generic Characters. — Bill much longer than the head, distinctly 

 curved (except in C. pulchra) ; tail forked, the three outer feathers 

 narrow, and plain purplish black, in adult males ; gorget of adult 

 males rich metallic amethyst, or magenta, purple with violet and blue 

 reflections; females with tail double-rounded and deeply emarginate, 

 the three outer feathers rufous at base, then black, tipped with white ; 

 under parts light ochraceous. 



This genus is most nearly related to both Doricha, Reich.,* and 

 Acestrura, GouLD,t between which it is nearly intermediate. In fact 

 the three should probably be merged into one genus, Calothorax, with 

 Doricha and Acestrura (including perhaps one or more subdivisions of 

 the former) as subgenera. 



The two known species of Calothorax are very much alike in colora- 

 tion, but differ so decidedly in structural characters that little difficulty 

 need be experienced in identifying them. Their differential characters 

 are as follows : 



a 1 . Bill with exposed culmen about one and a half times as long as the head, dis- 

 tinctly curved ; adult male with outer primary broader, and outer pair of tail- 

 feathers very narrow, as well as pointed ; adult female with belly white, and 

 lateral pair of tail-feathers shorter than middle pair. Hab.: Table-lands of 

 Mexico, north to southern Arizona. 



C. lucifer (Swains.). Lucifer Humming Bird. (Page 359. ) 

 a J . Bill with exposed culmen only a little longer than the head, much more slender, 

 and not decidedly curved ; adult male with outer primary narrower, and outer 

 pair of tail feathers much broader, and not pointed at ends; adult female with 

 belly buffy, only a little paler than breast, &c, and outer pair of tail-feathers 

 longer than middle pair. Hab. : Southwestern Mexico (Oaxaca, &c). 



C. pulchra Gould. Beautiful Humming Bird.X 



* Doricha Reich., Aufz. der Colib. 1853, 12. Type, Trochilus enicurus Vieill. * 

 t Acestrura Gould, Introd. Troch., Oct. ed. 1861, 91. Type, Ornismyamulsanti Bourc. 

 t Calothorax pulchra Gould, Ann. Mag. N. H., 3d ser., iv, 1859, 97; Mon. Troch., in, 



pi. 144. — Manilia pulchra Mulsant and Verreaux, Hist. Nat. Ois.-Mouch. ,iv, 1877, 



3U,pl.36. 



