DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW AFRICAN BIRDS OF THE GENERA 

 FRANCOLINUS, CHALCQPELIA, CINNYRIS, CHALCOMI- 

 TRA ; ANTHREPTES, ESTRILDA, HALCYON, MELITTO- 

 PHAGUS, AND COLIUS. 



By Edgar A. Mearns, 



Associate in Zoology, United States National Museum. 



Five of the fourteen forms of African birds here described are from 

 the collection made by the Childs Frick African Expedition, 1911-12; 

 three are from the Paul J. Rainey African Expedition, 1911-12; 

 five are from the Smithsonian African Expedition, 1909-10 collec- 

 tion, made under the direction of Col. Theodore Roosevelt; and one 

 is from the African collection made by Dr. W. L. Abbott in 1888 and 

 1889. 



The names of special tints and shades of colors used in this 

 paper conform to Mr. Robert Ridgway's Color Standards and 

 Color Nomenclature, issued March 10, 1913. 1 All measurements 

 are in millimeters. 



FRANCOLINUS HILDEBRANDTI HELLERI, new subspecies. 

 HELLER'S FRANCOLIN. 



Type-specimen. — Adult male, Cat. No. 217550, U. S. Nat. Mus.; 

 collected in the juniper forest at the summit of Mount Lololokui, 

 altitude 6,000 feet, British East Africa, September 21, 1911, by 

 Edmund Heller. (Original number, 382.) 



Characters. — Most closely related to Francolinus Tiildebrandti 

 Tiildebrandti Cabanis, from Ndi, Teita, British East Africa, and F. Ti. 

 altumi Fischer and Reichenow, from Lake Naivasha, British East 

 Africa. 2 It is slightly larger than typical Tiildebrandti, and the male 

 has a deeper, richer coloration above, and purer black and white on 

 the middle under parts; and the female is of a darker, olivaceous, 

 brown above, and a much darker cinnamon color below, unrelieved 

 by whitish edging to the feathers. While the male is equally dark, 

 it is much less grayish on the upper parts than altumi, in which the 

 female is much paler cinnamon below. The differences in these three 

 forms may be expressed as follows : 



1 The date on the title-page is 1912 (=January 16, 1913, when a few copies were distributed). The work 

 was generally distributed March 10, 1913. 



2 In a recent letter Doctor Reichenow informed us that Lake Naivasha is the type-locality of altumi. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 48— No. 2076. 



381 



