Annals of the Transvaal Museum 
197 
According to Mathews {Nov. Zool. xvii. 503, 1910) the genotype of 
Turtur Selby is the bird commonly known as Chalcopelia afra, and the 
species placed under T urtur must now be placed under Streptopelia Bona- 
parte, genotype 5 . risoria. Sharpe {Handl. Gen. and Spp. of Birds, i. 78, 
1899) places Turtur” senegalensis under Stigmatopelia Sundevall, in which 
Oberholser (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xxviii. 843, 1905) concurs, on account of 
the bifurcation of the feathers of the neck. It may be noted that our form 
should bear the name of Stigmatopelia senegalensis aequatorialis Erlanger 
{Journ.f. Orn. 1905, p. 116, PI. V, fig. 3). Of the remaining South African 
species commonly placed under Turtur, I consider that our Cape Turtle 
Dove should be separated from Streptopelia, represented here by S. semi- 
torquata and S. ambigua, under a different generic head, for which I propose 
the name of Afropelia gen. nov., genotype Columba capicola Sundevall, 
characterised by the consistently smaller bill and general smaller size; 
members of the two genera commonly occur side by side throughout the 
tropical range of the larger one. There are three forms of Afropelia capicola 
recognised within our limits, the typical one in the extreme south and 
extending northwards on the east to about Swaziland, damarensis Finsch 
and Hartlaub on the greater part of the west, and tropica Reichenow in 
the tropical low country of the north-east. 
W. L. Sclater {Ibis, 1912, p. 34) has recorded Turtur afra (L.) from Tam- 
barara for the first time within our limits and there is also a specimen of 
the species from Beira, collected by P. A. Sheppard, now in the Transvaal 
Museum collection. It is distinguished by having a light coloured bill and 
blue wing spots, as compared with T. chalcospilos, which has a dark coloured 
bill and the wing spots more or less green. Gunning and Haagner were 
technically in error in placing T. afra in their Check List in 1910, the 
species not having been recorded from South Africa at that time and the 
specimens upon which they commented as having green and blue wing 
spots being referable to T. chalcospilos caffra Reichenow. Rothschild {Bull. 
Brit. Orn. Cl. xxxviii. 26, 1917) has named the T. afra occurring within 
our limits as T. afra sclateri. I find that T. chalcospilos volkmanni (Rchw.) 
differs consistently from eastern specimens in having a shorter wing (100 
to 105 mm., as against 108 to 116 mm.), but that the tropical specimens 
from the east are almost as pale as those from the west and therefore much 
paler than those from the south-east. This larger pale form, which occurs 
from the eastern Transvaal to the Zambesi, I propose to name Turtur 
chalcospilos zambesiensis subsp. nov., the type from “Zimbiti,” Beira \ 
district. T. afra and T. chalcospilos so often occur in the same localities 
that perhaps they should receive subgeneric recognition, the difference in 
the colour of the bill being taken as the defining character, as it certainly 
is a most useful guide in a great many cases amongst birds. 
Rallidae 
Sharpe {Handl. i. 100, 1899) places Crex egregia Peters under the 
generic name of Crecopsis Sharpe, which is admitted as correct; but 
Ortygometra pusilla (Pallas) is placed by him under Porzana Vieillot, which 
upon the same basis should be kept separate, pusilla being more akin to 
Zapornia Leach in the shortness of its hind toe. I would, however, place 
pusilla in a distinct genus under the new name of Schoenocrex, on account 
