THE IBIS. 
FOURTH SERIES. 
No. II. APRIL 1877. 
X.-— Review of the Specimens of Trochilidse in the Paris Mu¬ 
seum, brought by D’Orbigny from South America . By D. 
G. Elliot, F.R.S.E. &c. 
Mindful of the importance of always referring to the types 
of described species of birds or mammals, when possible, in 
order to ascertain exactly what an author may have had before 
him when bestowing for the first time a name upon any 
animal, I have lately passed in review such of the specimens 
of IPOrbigny's Humming-birds as are still to be found in 
the Paris Museum, which are mentioned by himself and 
Lafresnaye in their 'Synopsis Avium/ and I have embo¬ 
died in the present paper whatever remarks seemed neces¬ 
sary regarding them. It is not always easy to ascertain the 
species to which some particular specimen of Humming¬ 
bird belongs, even when the example is present, as all Tro- 
chilidists well know, much less when a short and imperfect 
description of some of the earlier writers is all the light given 
upon which to form an opinion. It therefore seemed de¬ 
sirable that D'Orbigny’s specimens should be critically ex¬ 
amined, as being among the most important of the earlier 
collections made of these difficult birds. Some of the species 
SER. iv.— VOL. i. l 
i 
