NO. 13 NEW AFRICAN BIRDS MEARNS 9 



species of S. elegans. 1 It differs from elegans and buryi in its darker 

 coloration and heavier markings, especially as to the under parts, 

 and, in this regard, corresponds more closely to reichenovi. 



Description of type (and only specimen). — General color of upper 

 parts army brown ; back, rump, scapulars, and wing-coverts numer- 

 ously spotted with buckthorn brown, each spot bordered with black- 

 ish above and below ; bastard- wing and primary-coverts slaty brown, 

 with small ocherous spots on the outer edge of the outer webs ; quills 

 slaty brown ; upper tail-coverts and tail cinnamon-brown heavily 

 cross-banded with black ; head army brown, finely spotted with buck- 

 thorn brown and narrowly cross-banded with blackish ; sides of 

 head, including eye and lores, ochraceous-buff finely dotted with 

 brown ; ear-coverts without a dark line along the upper margin (in 

 which respect it differs from elegans) ; chin and throat soiled white, 

 thickly cross-banded with brownish black ; chest sayal brown, spot- 

 ted with bister; abdomen soiled white heavily cross-banded with 

 blackish, the blackish bands being broader than the whitish inter- 

 spaces; thighs and crissum sayal brown, spotted and obscurely 

 cross-banded with sepia and dirty white, but with the under tail- 

 coverts redder and broadly barred across with blackish sepia ; axil- 

 lars brownish-black, banded and tipped with white; under wing- 

 coverts hair brown edged with white. 



Measurements of type (adult female; measurements taken from 

 dry skin). — Length of skin, 155; wing, 92; tail, 42; culmen 

 (chord), 15; tarsus, 27; middle toe and claw, 32. 



Remarks. — The type-specimen was taken in a " Cyclone " mouse- 

 trap, set in a dense forest of bamboo, by J. Alden Loring, a member 

 of the Smithsonian African Expedition, in whose honor the species 

 is named. The following measurements and notes on the colors of 

 the soft parts were taken by the author from the fresh specimen : 

 Length, 188 ; alar expanse, 300 ; wing, 93 ; tail, 48 ; culmen (chord), 

 15 ; tarsus, 30 ; middle toe and claw, 32. Irides brown ; bill purplish 

 gray, flesh color on basal half of mandible; legs, feet, and claws 

 uniform purplish gray. 



l Gallinula elegans A. Smith, 111. Zool. S. Afr., Aves, 1839, pi. 22 (South 

 Africa). 



