DESCRIPTION OF A NEW AFRICAN GRASS-WARBLER 



OF THE GENUS CISTICOLA 



By EDGAR A. MEARNS 



ASSOCIATE IN ZOOLOGY, U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



This paper is the seventeenth dealing solely with the results of the 

 Smithsonian African Expedition, under the direction of Col. Theo- 

 dore Roosevelt. 



The genus Cisticola is a very large one, and contains, among other 

 groups of species, a very compact one, comprising four of the 

 African species: Cisticola hunteri Shelley (1889), C. lovati Ogilvie- 

 Grant (January, 1900), C. prinioides Neumann (July, 1900), and 

 C. harrisoni Stone (1906). As three of the above-named species 

 inhabit restricted areas no geographic races have been described; 

 but of C. prinioides three tenable races are recognized, and a fourth 

 is described below. The four subspecies of C. prinioides are repre- 

 sented in the collection before me by no less than 58 specimens. 



CISTICOLA PRINIOIDES WAMBUGENSIS, new subspecies 



Wambugu Grass- Warbler 



Type-specimen. — Adult male, Cat. No. 215390, U. S. National 

 Museum ; collected at Wambugu, altitude 5,500 feet, British East 

 Africa, October 24, 1909, by Edgar A. Mearns. (Original number 



i73°3-) 

 Characters. — Similar in size to Cisticola prinioides prinioides and 



C. p. kilimensis, slightly smaller than C. p. neumanni. Color paler 

 throughout than any of the above-named subspecies. It also differs 

 from them in the following particulars : upperparts more rufescent 

 and plainer in coloration, the slightly darker centers to the feathers 

 of the crown and mantle not forming appreciable stripes ; tail pale, 

 rusty drab ; underparts whitish, suffused with smoke gray on the 

 sides. 



Measurements of type (adult male). — Length (of skin), 135 milli- 

 meters; wing, 60; tail, 69; exposed culmen, 13; tarsus, 25.5. 



Measurements of adult female. — Length (of skin), 125 milli- 

 meters; wing, 55; tail, 58; exposed culmen, 11.5 ; tarsus, 24. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 60, No. 20 



