Mr. D. G. Elliot on the Trochilidse. 
401 
allied perhaps to Atthis. It has the form of Atthis , but the 
general coloration of Calliphlox amethystina. Four speci¬ 
mens are now before me, all from Cayenne—two adult males, 
one young male, and one still in the dress of the female, the 
sex being indicated by a few metallic spots upon the throat. 
The males, as I have said, are similar in colour to C. ame¬ 
thystina , but at once are seen to be conspicuously dif¬ 
ferent from that species by their long bills and very short 
square tails. Fortunately these four specimens exhibit very 
clearly the different stages the tail of the male assumes before 
the bird arrives at maturity. At first the lateral rectrices are 
brownish or purplish black, tipped with white; then they 
change to a golden green, with a terminal bar of purplish 
black and the tip white, which in the adult disappears, or is 
but faintly indicated underneath, leaving the tail golden 
green with an apical purplish black bar. In this style of 
coloration it in no way has the least resemblance to C. 
amethystina , with which it has for so long been confounded. 
M. Bourcier was clearly in error in his opinion, as quoted by 
Mr. Gould (Mon. Troch. art. on C. amethystina) , that the 
orthura of Lesson was only the young of C. amethystina; 
and it was doubtless this opinion that led Mr. Gould astray: 
it is difficult to understand how so good a Trochilidist as M. 
Bourcier undoubtedly was should have gone so wide of the 
mark as to confound such distinct species together. The 
example figured by Mr. Gould as the female of C. amethys¬ 
tina I should consider most probably the present species; 
for the female “ Amethyst 33 has quite a different dress, as my 
description of that sex in this paper clearly shows. The bill 
of Catharma orthura is very long, much longer than that 
of the 4f Amethyst/* and is the more conspicuous probably on 
account of the very short tail, which just projects beyond the 
tips of the closed wings. Lessors descriptions being very 
accurate, it will not be necessary for me to give one at pre¬ 
sent. As I have said in my remarks on C. amethystina, 
it is impossible to state what Trochilus brevicauda of Spix 
really is, or to which of these species it should be referred; 
I have therefore deemed it best to leave it as a synonym of the 
