59.82 (67.5) 
Article XVI. DESCRIPTIONS OF THREE NEW BIRDS FROM 
THE BELGIAN CONGO. 
By JAMES P. CHAPIN. 
The whole of the large collection of birds secured by the Congo Expe- 
dition of the American Museum of Natural History during the years 1909 
to 1915, under the leadership of Mr. Herbert Lang, has now arrived safely 
at the Museum. It is composed of material gathered all across the Belgian 
Congo, from Boma on the west to Aba in the northeastern corner, but the 
greater part from the more remote territory between Stanley Falls and the 
Enclave of Lado, including the dense equatorial forests of the Ituri, Nepoko, 
and Bomokandi, and the high-grass and bush country of the Uele District 
to the north and northeast. 
Of the relatively small number of zodlogical expeditions that have passed 
through and collected in these regions, none has ever before been able to 
make such a prolonged stay, and the varied zodlogical results of this Expe- 
dition are surely of the highest scientific interest. The ornithological col- 
lection contains in the neighborhood of six thousand skins, and represents 
some 600 different species, a number of them of course new to science. 
These it is our purpose to describe as promptly as possible in this Bulletin, 
before taking up the greater work of a general report on all the forms col- 
lected, with more extended notes on their distribution, habits, food, and 
nests. 
Descriptions of the first three new forms follow: 
Chetura melanopygia sp. nov. 
Related to C. stictilema, but much larger, with feathers of upper breast more 
heavily margined with blackish, and without any trace of a light rump-band. 
Description of type, collector’s No. 4986 Congo Px. Av Mi No Hot ad. 
Avakubi, Ituri District, Belgian Congo, Aug. 15, 1913. 
Upper parts brownish-black (cheetura-black, Ridgw.) becoming black on wings 
and tail, with faint violet and green reflections (green on freshly molted feathers). 
Ear coverts drab, bordered with fuscous-black; feathers of throat pale smoke-gray, 
margined with fuscous, those of upper breast similar, but heavily bordered with 
fuscous-black, consequently with a very pronounced “scaly” appearance; lower 
breast growing darker, so that the dark borders are less conspicuous, and the feather- 
ing of the belly completely fuscous-black with slight oily gloss. Under wing coverts 
mouse-gray with darker edges, flanks and under tail-coverts black with slight green- 
ish gloss. Tail slightly rounded. 
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