NO. 9 THREE NEW AFRICAN WEAVER-BIRDS — MEARNS 3 



4. Estrilda rhodopyga centralis Konrad Kothe, Ornith. Monatsb., 

 XIX, No. 4, April, 191 1, p. 70. Type locality: Kissenje, north shore 

 of Lake Albert, Uganda. 



5. Estrilda rhodopyga frommi Konrad Kothe, Ornith. Monatsb., 

 XIX, No. 4, April, 191 1, p. 70. Type locality : Karema, Lake Tanga- 

 nyika. 



GRANATINA IANTHINOGASTRA ROOSEVELTI, 1 new subspecies 



Roosevelt's Cordon-bleu 



Type-specimen. — Adult male, Cat. No. 214634, U. S. National 

 Museum ; collected on the Southern Guaso Nyiro River, Sotik Dis- 

 trict, British East Africa, June 14, 1909, by Edgar A. Mearns. 

 (Original number, 16045.) 



Characters. — Larger than Granatina ianthinogastra iantliinogastra 

 or G. i. hawkeri. Males, compared with typical ianthinogastra from 

 the Tana River, British East Africa, are decidedly more grayish on 

 the mantle, less rufescent on the head, and with darker, more brown- 

 ish under wing-coverts and edging to the under surface of the inner 

 webs of the quills. Granatina ianthinogastra hawkeri, the only pre- 

 viously described form of this species, inhabits the desert regions of 

 Somaliland, and is slightly distinguished from typical ianthinogastra 

 by its paler coloration, adult males having the mantle and wings paler 

 grayish brown, and the head paler and more ochraceous than in the 

 other forms. Females of roosevelti show differences, similar to those 

 mentioned above, in the coloration of the upper parts ; the feathers 

 surrounding the eye are bluish instead of pale lilac ; and the lower 

 abdomen and crissum are dark, with no trace of the whiteness or pale 

 rustiness which those parts invariably present in ianthinogastra and 

 hawkeri. 



Measurements of type (adult male).- — Length (of skin), 130; 

 wing, 60; tail, 70; culmen (chord), 12 ; tarsus, 18. 



Geographical range. — Sotik District, British East Africa. 



Remarks. — The three subspecies of Granatina ianthinogastra are 

 represented in the material before me by 50 specimens, obtained at 

 localities ranging from northern Abyssinia south to the plains east of 

 Mount Kilimanjaro and west to the Sotik District of British East 

 Africa. Series of topotypes of each form are included in this collec- 

 tion, the greater part of which was gathered by the author and others 

 on the Childs Frick African Expedition, 1911-12. 



1 Named in honor of Col. Theodore Roosevelt, leader of the Smithsonian 

 African Expedition. 



