Genera of Humming Brids. 85 



L' Elvire à queue ini-blanclie, Muls., Hist. Nat. Ois. Mou.^ 

 1874, t. i., p. 265. 



Sex (?) Upperside shining grass-green. Median rectrices 

 bronze-green with tips brownish black, lateral white with a 

 wide band of purplish-black in the centre and white tips. 

 Throat white tipped with green. Breast and centre of 

 abdomen white. Flanks white at base, with tips shining 

 green. Outermost rectrices purplish-black at base, the rest 

 white. Bill black. Just under the mandible a rufous spot on 

 chin. A buffy white spot behind the eye. Wings purplish 

 brown. Feet and tarsi yellow, probably flesh colour when 

 alive. 



Total length, 3iin. Wing 2. Tail, i|-. Culmen, |-. 



I have only one specimen of this peculiar species. 



Genus XLII. Ramphomicron, Bon. Compt. Rend., 



1850, p. 382. 



Type : O. microrhynehuSj Boissoneau. 



Bill extremely short, acutely pointed. Wrings long. Upper- 

 surface and throat metallic. Tail deeply forked. Sexes unlike. 



Habitat. — Columbia, Ecuador, Peru. 



This genus forms the natural passage from Metalluridae 

 to Lesbidae. 



117. Ramphomicron microrhvnchum, Boiss., Rev. Zool., 



1839, p. 354. 



Trochilus hrachyrliynchus, Fras., P.Z.S., 1840, p. 16. 



Mellisuga microrhyncha, Gray, Gen. Birds, vol. i., p. 112. 



Thorn-bill, Gould, Mon. Troch., vol. iii., p. i8g. 



Le Ramphomicron à petit bee, Muls., Hist. Nat. Ois. jMou., 

 1876, vol. iii., p. 163. 



Hirondelle, 



Habitat. — Columbia, Ecuador, Peru. 



Male. — Upperside metallic purple. Throat luminous light 

 grass-green. Underside dark bronzy-green, slightly grayish- 

 buff on the vent. Undertail coverts grayish-buff, greenish in 

 the centre. Tail purple-black, with glossy tips. Wings 

 purplish-brown. Bill black. 



Total length, 3|in. Wing, 2. Tail, 2\. Culmen, -|. 



