396 
Mr. D. G. Elliot on the Trochilidse. 
it with H. auritus, and I fail to discover any character which 
should cause it to be separated from that species. The bill 
is slightly longer, though hardly perceptibly so; there is no 
difference in the general measurements of the body; and the 
head and back are of about the same brilliancy as is ob¬ 
served in ordinary specimens of H. auritus . I therefore 
placed H. longirostris among the synonyms of the present 
species. 
Heliothrix auriculatxjs. 
Trochilus auriculatus, Nordm. Erman's Beise um die Erde, 
p. 5, t. 2. figs. 1 & 2 (1835). 
Heliothrix auriculatus, Gould, Mon. Troch. vol. iv. pi. 214 ; 
id. Intr. Troch. (8vo ed.) p. 121. sp. 239. 
Heliothrixphainolcema, Gould, P. Z. S. 1855, p. 87. 
Hab. Southern Brazil; banks of Bio Napo (?) and Bio Ne¬ 
gro (?) {Gould). 
This bird was first described by Nordmann under a MS. 
name of Lichtenstein's. Although similar to H. auritus, it is 
readily distinguished by having the throat a brilliant metallic 
green, instead of white. It is apparently confined to Southern 
Brazil. In 1855 Mr. Gould described Heliothrix phainolcema 
from specimens said to have come from the Bio Napo, and 
which differed from H. auriculata in having the entire throat a 
metallic green. In his monograph of the Trochilidse he states 
the locality of his specimens to be the Bio Negro in Northern 
Brazil; and the figures on his plate being represented in pro¬ 
file, the exact extent of the green throat-mark cannot be 
perceived, while his description of “ chin, throat, and sides of 
the neck rich luminous green" answers perfectly well for 
adult male specimens of H. auriculatus lying before me. I am 
inclined to think that Mr. Gould is in error with regard to 
the locality of the specimens he described and figured (as he 
gives such distant places as the habitat in his two statements), 
and that he had merely fine adult males of H. auriculatus 
before him when he published his description. 
Having, in my own collection, specimens of the present 
species that exhibit a varying amount of green on the throat. 
