DESCRIPTIONS OF SEVEN NEW SUBSPECIES AND ONE 

 NEW SPECIES OF AFRICAN BIRDS (PLANTAIN- 

 EATER, COURSER, .AND RAIL) 



By EDGAR A. MEARNS 



ASSOCIATE IN ZOOLOGY, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



This is the author's thirteenth publication devoted to descriptions 

 of new forms of African birds. Three of the forms here described 

 are from the collection made by the Paul J. Rainey African Expedi- 

 tion, 1911-12; three are from the Smithsonian African Expedition, 

 1909-10 collection, made under the direction of Col. Theodore Roose- 

 velt; one is from the collection of the Childs Frick African Expe- 

 dition, 1911-12; and one is from the African collection made for the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Massachusetts, by 

 Dr. Glover M. Allen, in the year 1909. The names of special tints 

 and shades of colors used in this paper conform to Robert Ridgway's 

 " Color Standards and Color Nomenclature," issued March 10, 1913. 

 All of the measurements were taken, in millimeters, by Miss Celestine 

 B. Hodges. 



TURACUS HARTLAUBI (Fischer and Reichenow) 



Hartlaub's Plantain-eater 



Corythaix Hartlaubi Fischer and Reichenow, Journ. fur Ornith., 1884, p. 52 

 (base of Mount Meru, near Kilimanjaro, Masai Land, German East 

 Africa) . 



Hartlaub's Plantain-eater has never been divided into its com- 

 ponent subspecies, because of the assumption that it does not vary 

 geographically. It is apparent, however, on spreading out sixty-four 

 specimens from various parts of the range of the species, that there 

 are four easily-recognizable geographical forms, three of which are 

 characterized beyond. The four subspecies may be recognized by 

 means of the following 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 65, No. 13 



