NO. 14 FIVE NEW AFRICAN WEAVER-BIRDS — MEARNS 3 



Characters. — This form differs from Hypargos niveoguttatus niv- 

 eoguttatus (Peters) in the following respects: Size larger; under 

 parts jet black, with larger and more numerous white twin-spots on 

 sides ; mantle more yellowish brown ; chin, throat, sides of head, and 

 chest darker red. 



Measurements of type (adult male). — Length of skin, 120; wing, 

 57; tail, 56; oilmen (chord), 13 ; tarsus, 18. 



AIDEMOSYNE INORNATA, new species 

 Plain Silver-bill 



Type-specimen. — Female, Cat. No. 217336, U. S. National Mu- 

 seum; collected at El Dueim, White Nile, Sudan, Africa, March 13, 

 1910, by Edgar A. Mearns. (Original number, 187 15.) 



Characters. — Similar to Aidemosyne cantans cant an s (Gmelin), 

 but larger, and without transverse bars or vermiculations on the 

 upper parts. 



Description of type (adult female). — Crown, upper side of neck, 

 mantle, upper rump, and inner portion of wings pale broccoli brown ; 

 feathers of forehead with darker centers and paler edges, giving a 

 scale-like appearance which becomes obsolete on the occiput ; sides of 

 head of a color similar to that of the mantle but more buffy ; tail and 

 outer two-thirds of wing seal brown ; chin and throat buffy white, 

 faintly spotted with yellowish brown ; remainder of under parts white 

 perceptibly washed with buff ; under side of wing, except tips of outer 

 primaries, buff ; some grayish white on under side of outer rectrices. 



Measurements of type (adult female). — Length of skin, 106; wing, 

 57; tail, 45 ; oilmen (chord), 11 ; tarsus, 13.5. 



Remarks. — It is probable that some specimens of the present species 

 have been included in published measurements of Aidemosyne can- 

 tans cantans. Reichenbach, in Die Singvogel, 1862, pi. xvi, fig. 146, 

 figures a bird similar to the present species together with three indi- 

 viduals of A. cantans, but the colors are much more intense. 



Mr. H. F. Witherby 1 collected specimens, at the same season and 

 in the same region, of a species of Aidemosyne which may be, in 

 whole or in part, the same as inornata; but he gives no measurements, 

 although he carefully describes the changes resultant from " moulting 

 from the immature to the mature plumage." The form inornata may 

 prove to be merely a very large and pallid subspecies of Aidemosyne 

 cantans, of which the subspecies cantans was restricted to West 

 Africa by Lorenz and Hellmayr when they described Aidemosyne 

 cantans orientalist 



1 Cf. Ibis, 1901, p. 247 ; also, in this connection, pp. 519 and 618. 



2 Ornithologische Monatsberichte, ix, 1901, p. 39. 



