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  _Descriptions of Three New Birds from the Belgian Congo._

  BY JAMES P. CHAPIN.

  BULLETIN OF THE
  AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY,
  VOL. XXXIV, ART. XVI, pp. 509-513

  _New York, October 20, 1915._




=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
Expedition 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 zooelogical 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 zooelogical
results of this Expedition are surely of the highest scientific
interest. The ornithological collection 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 collected, with
more extended notes on their distribution, habits, food, and nests.

Descriptions of the first three new forms follow:


=Chaetura melanopygia= sp. nov.

     Related to _C. stictilaema_, 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 Exp. A. M. N. H.,
     [Male] ad. Avakubi, Ituri District, Belgian Congo, Aug. 15, 1913.

     Upper parts brownish-black (chaetura-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 feathering 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 greenish gloss. Tail slightly rounded.

     Iris dark brown, bill black, feet bluish, shading to dusky brown
     on tips of toes and claws. Sexual organs enlarged.

     Length (skin) 145 mm.; wing 164; tail 49.5; bill (exposed
     culmen), 7.5; metatarsus 13.

Only one specimen secured, out of two or three of these swifts that were
flying about over the Ituri River, in company with several examples of
_Chaetura cassini_. In spite of our long stay in this region, the species
was not again positively recognized; but _Chaetura cassini_, _C.
stictilaema_ and _C. sabinei_ were all of common occurrence there.


=Apaloderma minus= sp. nov.

Resembling _Apaloderma narina_, but decidedly smaller, of different
coloration, and with bill less swollen. The serration of the maxilla
is less pronounced.

The adult male of _A. minus_ is distinguished by the bluer hue of the
forehead, throat, and upper breast, which show in certain lights deep
violet reflections, and by the more scarlet, less crimson color of the
remaining underparts. In life the naked areas on the cheeks are bright
yellow, whereas in _A. narina_ they are light green.

The adult female differs in the more tawny or ochraceous coloration of
the breast, which is grayish in this sex of _A. narina_, although
sometimes washed with light brown on the upper breast. A greenish
gloss on the upper breast is more common in