The Humming Bird. 125 



all my leisure time, and I have come to the conclusion that 

 Mr Osbert Salvin has produced a remarkable work which 

 will facilitate immensely the study of these charming birds; 

 but I am sorry to see that he has not supported my proposi- 

 tion of a new Order for them, but has only proposed a sub- 

 Order. 



Nevertheless I am satisfied so far, the gap between the two, 

 being rather a slight one, and I have no doubt that before 

 long, my proposition of the order TROGHILI, will be accep- 

 ted by all eminent Ornithologists. 



The classification proposed by Mr Salvin of Trocmli serri- 



ROSTRES, ÏR0CI1ILI 1NTERMED1I, and TroCHILI L.EVIROSTRES, is 



very attractive, and already in 1888, Mr Eugene Simon, of 

 Paris, and myself, we had established the basis of a classifi- 

 cation on these characters ; but we gave it up as not quite 

 satisfactory. Lately, with the hope of making my profit of the 

 most recent attempts at classification of these birds, formy 

 Genera, 1 have gone to the trouble to reclassify all my Co- 

 lection according to the classification pro posed by Mr Salvin; 

 but it has not been so satisfatory as I thought, and I have 

 come to the conclusion that the said characters are not im- 

 portant enough, to base a classification upon. 1 consider them 

 only as accessories characters, not equivalent to those of 

 the general faciès, wings, tail and bill. 



I consider even the characters of the tail as more impor- 

 tant than those of dentition ; but a really good classifiication 

 cannot be made without taking in consideration all the above 

 mentioned characters. 



I consider the dentition only as an additional character ena 

 bling the species which possess it to feed on insects of a lar- 

 ger size than the others, and to grind them with, so as to be 

 more easily digested. 



I am also sorry that Mr Osbert Salvin did not mention, 

 when possible, the names of the discoverers of species. Fur 

 exemple, Phaeoptila sordida, page 63, Gyanomyia violiceps, 

 p. 196, and Galotkorax pulchra, p. 391, three well known 

 species, discovered by me, in the Department ot Oaxaca, 

 Mexico, in 1857, are only mentioned as Oaxaca, Mexico, 

 Salle, for the first two, and Mexico, Boucard, for the last one. 

 It should be for all of them, Oaxaca, Mexico, Boucard. 



The same thing has been done in the Biologia Gentrali 

 Americana, with all the species of Insects discovered by me, 

 in Tuxtla, Playa Vicente, Oaxaca, Juquila, etc., to which 

 the name of my friend Salle is attached. Excepting the spe- 

 cies collected in Vera-Cruz, Cordoba, Orizaba and San- 

 Andres Ghalchicomula, which we explored conjointly, all the 

 others were collected in countries, where my friend Salle 

 has never been. 



Lastly, I see that Mr Osbert Salvin mentions several spe- 



