NO. 13 NEW AFRICAN BIRDS — MEARNS 7 



River, Sotik District, British East Africa).' — Wing, 120; tail, 48; 

 culmen (chord), 19; tarsus, 40.5. 



Average measurements of two adult females of Cursorius tem- 

 minckii temminckii (same locality as above). — Wing, 117; tail, 44; 

 culmen (chord), 19; tarsus, 38. 



Remarks. — Unquestionably the bird figured by Swainson in Zoo- 

 logical Illustrations, Vol. 2, 1822, plate 106, and described on the suc- 

 ceeding page, is the same as a series of five specimens obtained by 

 us in the Sotik District of British East Africa, east of Lake Victoria ; 

 and Mr. C. H. B. Grant's three specimens, one from the Lemek 

 Valley, and two from Kamchuru, in the Lobor District, British East 

 Africa, north of Lake Victoria, commented on by him in " The Ibis," 

 1915, page 60, belong to the same dark, typical form of Cursorius 

 temminckii Swainson. In his Birds of Western Africa, Vol. 2, p. 

 230, pi. 24, Swainson described and figured a pale-colored form of 

 this species, under the name Tachydromus Senegalensis Lichtenstein, 

 from West Africa. Both of these forms are subspecifically distinct 

 from that described above. 



RHINOPTILUS AFRICANUS RAFFERTYI, new subspecies 1 



Abyssinian Courser 



Type-specimen. — Adult male, Cat. No. 243063, U. S. Nat. Mus. ; 

 collected at the Iron Bridge, Hawash River, Abyssinia, February 4, 

 19 1 2, by Edgar A. Mearns. (Original number, 20081.) 



Subspeciiic characters. — Most closely related to Rhinoptilus afri- 

 canus hartingi Sharpe and R. a. bisignatus (Hartlaub). From 

 hartingi it differs in being very much darker in coloration, with 

 general color of crown blackish instead of cinnamon-buff, and with 

 the pale tips to the rectrices crossed by a subterminal blackish bar 

 which is absent in hartingi; from bisignatus it differs in being much 

 less ochraceous above and below, with narrower and paler margins 

 to the feathers of the upper parts, and with narrower transverse 

 black pectoral bands ; and from both hartingi and bisignatus it may 

 be instantly distinguished by the grayness of its upper parts. 



Measurements of type (adult male). — Length of skin, 185 ; wing, 

 145; tail, 63; culmen (chord), 14; tarsus, 46. 



Material. — Two males from the Hawash Valley, taken January 25 

 and February 4, 19 12. 



1 Named in honor of Dr. Donald G. Rafferty, a member of the Childs Frick 

 African Expedition, who first drew my attention to this Courser, in the 

 Hawash Valley. 



