NO. 13 NEW AFRICAN BIRDS — MEARNS 5 



CORYTHiEOLA CRISTATA YALENSIS, new subspecies 

 Yala River Plantain-eater 



Type-specimen. — Adult male, Cat. No. 217630, U. S. Nat, Mus.; 

 collected on the Yala River, British East Africa, February 7, 191 1, 

 by Edmund Heller. (Original number, 454.) 



SubspeciHc characters. — Larger than Corythceola cristata cristata 

 (Vieillot) ; upper parts paler and more greenish blue; forehead, 

 around base of bill, with a broader band of pale bluish. 



Measurements of type (adult male) . — Wing, 335 ; tail, 380 ; culmen 

 (chord), 43; tarsus, 57. 



Average measurements of two adult males (type, and topotype No. 

 217628, U. S. Nat. Mus.) — Wing, 235.5; tail, 389; culmen (chord), 

 42.3; tarsus, 58. 



Measurements of one adult female topotype (Cat. No. 217629, U. 

 S. Nat. Mus.). — Wing, 338; tail, 393; culmen (chord), 39; tarsus, 

 54- 



CURSORIUS GALLICUS MERUENSIS, new subspecies 



Meru Courser 



? Cursorius somalensis Lonnberg, Kungl. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handlingar, 47, 

 No. S, 191 1, p. 37 (Lekiundu River, British East Africa). 



Type-specimen. — Adult female, Cat. No. 56130, Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts ; collected on plains by 

 the Meru River, northern base of Mount Kenia, British East Africa, 

 August 10, 1909, by Dr. Glover M. Allen. (No original number.) 



SubspeciHc characters. — A member of the Cursorius gallicus 

 group, most closely related to Cursorius gallicus littoralis Erlanger, 

 from which it differs in being darker and more drabish in color. It 

 requires no close comparison with C. g. somalensis Shelley, which 

 is so much paler, and less grayish above, as to be instantly dis- 

 tinguished. 



Description of type (adult female). — Forehead and crown ante- 

 riorly antique brown, passing into gray (dark gull gray) on the 

 occiput; two black lines extend backwards from the eye, beginning 

 at the upper and lower border, respectively, the upper black band 

 joining the one from the opposite side on the upper nape, the lower 

 one broadening posteriorly and ending on the side of the neck, the 

 two black bands enclosing a triangular area of white; a whitish 

 stripe also extends backwards from the angle of the mouth, below 

 the eye, to include the upper half of the ear-coverts, below which the 



