Ornithologists' Club. 313 



one mistake in his memoir which he admitted. He had 

 enumerated Galerida thekJee as one of the sub-species of 

 G. cristata, but he found now that the secondaries, in the 

 adult bird, were so much shorter than in G. cristata, and 

 the first (spurious) primary was comparatively so much 

 longer, that it would be necessary to follow Dr. Sharpe in 

 recognizing G. theklce as a distinct species, especially since 

 recent observations had shown that forms of G. cristata 

 and G. tliekla breed in the same area, while Mr. Hartert 

 formerly supposed that they inhabited different parts of the 

 country. The specific difference of G. theklce. had been 

 insisted on by Brehm and Sharpe, and recently again (mi 

 litteris) by Kleinschmidt, but nobody had ever pointed out 

 the most important characters. There w^ere other features 

 besides, in the form and size of bill and in the colour. 

 Galerida malabarica would also have to stand as a species, 

 being after all very different from G. cristata. Mr. Hartert 

 hoped to return to the interesting subject of the Crested 

 Larks on a future occasion. He considered that his inves- 

 tigations had, in fact, only just commenced. 



Captain G. E. Shelley communicated the descriptions of 

 four new species of birds from Nyasa Land : — 



Melanobucco macclounii, sp. u. 



Similar to J/, levaillanti, but with the back of the head 

 and neck black ; a large bare patch round the eye, the 

 posterior half of which is surrounded by the white of the 

 entire sides and front of the neck, this also extending over 

 the sides of the back. Total length 7 '2 inches, culmen 0-8^ 

 wing 3*4j tail 2*6, tarsus 0-85, 



CiSTICOLA alticola, sp. n. 



Allied to C. angusticauda, Reichen., from Uniamwesi, and 

 with the back of neck, back, and wdng-coverts uniform ashy 

 grey ; quills and tail brown, the latter with white ends, but 

 without dark sub-terminal marks on the feathers, and the 

 underparts white shaded with grey on the flanks. It is 

 distinguished by having the entire ear-coverts, and head above 



SER vii. — vol. v. y 



