NO. 1411. BIRDS FROM MOUNT KILIMANJARO— OBERHOLSER. 845 



used to consider Ch<ileopelia chalcoHpiJa (Wag-ler)'* identical witli the 

 present species; but he has changed his mind/' and now agrees that 

 Erhmger is undoubtedly quite right in asserting their distinctness.'^ 

 As the latter says, their occurrence in the same locality precludes the 

 possibility of their being but geographical races; and in connection 

 with this it may be stated as further proof that there are no specimens 

 that can t)e considered of an intermediate character. Aside from an 

 interesting difi'erence in hal)its noted l)y Mr. Erianger — chalcoHpila 

 living among the acacias on the plains, and afrn more confined to the 

 forests these two species may be distinguished as follows: Chalcopelia 

 afra is much larger; it has l)lue or purple instead of bright-green 

 metallic spots on the inner wing-coverts; the bill is \"ellow instead of 

 almost black; the brown area of the entire upper surface is decidedlv 

 more rufescent; and the chin, as well as the cheeks, Hanks, and abdo- 

 men, are strongly tinged with buff. 



None of the specimens collected by Doctor Abbott approach either 

 of the forms j-ecently described by Doctor Sharpe,'' but are all appar- 

 ently t3^pical afra. 



CHALCOPELIA CHALCOSPILA ACANTHINA, new subspecies. 



Chars, suhsp. — Similar to Chalcopelia chalcosplla, chalcosplhi., but 

 larger; very much paler below; somewhat lighter above, particularly 

 on the wings. 



I)escr{ption.—Ty\)&, adult female, Cat. No. 11925?,, U.S.N.M.; 

 Mount Kilimanjaro, German East Africa, 5,000 feet, December 6, 

 18<S9; Dr. \V. L. Abbott. Forehead pale gray, laterally whitish, and 

 passing posteriorly into the slate gray of the crown and occiput, both 

 of which are paler laterally; orlutal region pale gray; a narrow 

 blackish line from e3'e to l)ill; cervix, back, and .scapulars gra3'ish 

 brown; rump with two bands of black inclosing one of pale brownish; 

 upper tail-coverts like the back, but slightly paler and more gra^nsh, 

 the feathers wnth broad black tips; tail black below, dull brownish 

 gray above, with a broad black terminal band, the outermost feathers 

 slate gra}' basally, with outer webs whitish, this succeeded distall}^ 

 by a broad zone of black which in turn gives place to a slate-colored 

 tip, paler on exterior web; wing-quills chestnut, margined exteriorly 

 and broadly tipped with dark brown, some of the inner secondaries 

 entirel^^ of this color; alula blackish brown; primary-coverts chestnut 

 with wide outer margins of dark brown; remainder of wing-coverts, 



«Syst. Avium, 1827 (Cohimha, sp. 83), p. 258. 



''Journ. f. Ornith., 1902, p. 134. 



<-Ornith. Monatsber., 1901, p. 183. 



'' Chalcopelia abyssinica Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, XI I, 1902, No. xc, p. 83 

 (Kokai, Bogos Land, Abyssinia). Chalcopelia delicatula Sharpe, idem, p. 84 (Goz- 

 Abu-Guraar, White Nile). 



Proc. N. M. vol. xxviii— 04- 54 



