Page:Notes on the Ornithology of Southern Texas.djvu/33

This page needs to be proofread.
148
PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM.


bronzy on the crown and rump ; longer upper tail -coverts cinnamon- rufous. Tail deep chestnut-rufous, the feathers tipped and edged for a greater or less distance from their ends with metallic greenish-bronze^ glossed with purple 5 wing-coverts metallic green, like the back; rest of the wing uniform dusky slate, with a distinct violet purple gloss in cer- tain lights. Side of the head bronzy-green, the lores bright cinnamon- rufous. Throat, jugulum, breast, and sides metallic green, most brilliant on the breast and jugulum, where bright emerald in certain lights, duller and more bronzy on the sides ; throat-feathers grayish-white beneath the surface, this color showing wherever the feathers are disturbed. Abdomen pale mouse-gray ; crissum deep cinnamon rufous; anal tufts and thighs cottony- white. Bill reddish at the base for a greater or less distance (pale brownish in the dried skin), the terminal portion black- ish; feet blackish. Wing, 2.00-2.35 ; tail, 1.45-1.70; culmen, .70-.90. Sexes alike in color. Young similar to the adult, but with the plum- age duller, the rump more extensively tinged with rufous and the fore- head washed with rusty.

With very numerous specimens before me, representing various loca- lities, from Eastern Mexico to Guayaquil, Ecuador, I am unable to dis- cover any differences coincident with locality, even in specimens from the most remote districts. There is a considerable range of individual variation, involving the amount of blackness of the maxilla (some speci- mens having the upper mandible wholly blackish except the extreme base, while in others only the end is dark -colored), length of wing and bill, etc. These differences, however, appear to be purely individual, and not at all, so far as T can see, local. — E. E.

The occurrence of this species within our limits was noted in the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, vol. i, p. 88. I have nothing to add to the brief note there published. The specimen was captured by a soldier and brought to me. After describing the bird, I returned it to him, as he wished to keep it, but it escaped in a day or two. Found from Southern Texas to Ecuador.

125. *Amazilia yucatanensis.

Trochilus yucatanensis, Cabot, Pr. Boston Soc. N. H. 1845, 74. (Yucatan.) Amazilia yucatanensis, Gould, Monog. Trochilid. V, 1853, pi. 308. — Muls. ? Hist. Nat. Ois. Mouch. I, , 295.

Pyrrhophcena yucatanensis, Gould, In trod. Troch. 1861, 157.

Eranna yucatanensis, Heine, J. f. O. 1863, 187 (Yucatan).

Amazilius cerviniventris, Gould, P. Z. S. June 10, 1856, 150 (Cordova, Mexico). — Scl., ib. 287 (Cordova); 1857, 17.

Amazilia cerviniventris, Gould, Monog. Troch. V, 1853, pi. 319 (Cordova). — , Scl., Catal. Am. B. 1862, 314, No. 1877 (Tlacotalpam, S. Mexico).— Sex. & Salv., Nona. Neotr. 1873, 92 (Mexico).— Boucakd, Catal. Avium, 1876, 350, No. 10,966 (Yucatan).— Mekkill, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, II, Jan. 1877, 26 (Fort Brown, Texas, Aug. 17, 1876).— Coues & Sennett, Bull. U. S. Geol. & Geog. Surv. Terr. vol. iv, No. 1, Feb. 1878, 35 (Brownsville. Texas).