BIRDS COLLECTED IN THE BELGIAN CONGO 790 
As far as I know this is the second specimen of this very rare kingfisher to 
come to American museums, the other being an adult female collected near 
Avakubi, Ituri district, by the American Museum Congo Expedition (H. Lang 
and J. P. Chapin), and now in the American Museum of Natural History. 
Chapin (Ibis 1922, pp. 443-445) has described his specimen fully. The pres- 
ent individual is a male, not fully adult, and differs from the description of the 
adult female given by Chapin in the following particulars: forehead black only 
medially, encroached upon laterally by the pale rufous lores which are spotted 
with black only in the immediate preocular portion; malar region and cheeks 
rufus narrowly barred with black; breast grayish brown becoming rich rufous 
laterally; above as in adult female except that the middle of the back is bright 
light blue, not bluish-violet like the upper tail coverts; bill brownish in dried 
skin, light at tip; feet yellowish in dried skin; wing 53; tail 22.5; culmen from 
base 29.5 mm. 
The known distribution of this rare bird becomes somewhat more intelligible 
with the discovery of this specimen. Previously it was recorded from Lake 
Leopold, Tondu, Bolobo, Kunungu, and from the Ituri Forest at Avakubi where 
Chapin observed and collected a single specimen along a small forest brook. The 
two extreme localities are about 650 miles apart in a straight line. Bumba is 
almost exactly half way between the two, following the Congo River system. 
This kingfisher ranges right across the Congo forest, keeping close to the larger 
waterways. 
Meropidae 
Melittophagus variegatus loringi Mearns 
Melittophagus variegatus loringi Mearns, Proc. U. 8. Nat. Mus. xlviii, 1915, p. 2938: Butiaba, 
Lake Albert, Uganda. 
Male, female, Bumba, 30 December 1926. 
These birds agree with Uganda specimens in having fairly well-developed blue 
superciliary stripes, but are slightly smaller (wing 86.5 male; 82 mm. female). 
Grant (Ibis, 1915, pp. 297-298) writes that the characters on which Mearns de- 
seribed loringi do not hold. These characters are larger size with paler yellow un- 
derparts. However, Grant notes that all East African birds have well-developed 
superciliary stripes while West African specimens have either incomplete ones 
or none at all. So then the character of the superciliary stripe seems to be the 
only constant difference between loringi and variegatus. Now, these Bumba 
(West African) specimens show that western birds may sometimes have well- 
developed superciliaries. A bird in the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy, from 
the Cameroon also has slight blue superciliaries. This means either of two 
things: — that loringi is not distinct, or that it extends further west than 
hitherto thought. The latter seems the true solution. In this connection Dr. 
James P. Chapin informs me that loringi is a more northern form extending 
right across to West Africa north of the Congo forest. 
The southern race bangweoloensis I have not seen, but it seems very distinct, 
judging from literature, and the colored figure published in the Ibis for 1915. 
