Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, And Corvidae
Author
Lecroy, Mary
Department of Vertebrate Zoology (Ornithology) American Museum of Natural History
text
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
2014
2014-12-30
2014
393
1
165
journal article
7639
10.1206/885.1
48769858-fe3b-415b-9ac8-3feeb42a9bae
0003-0090
4629954
Amblyornis flavifrons
Rothschild
Amblyornis flavifrons
Rothschild, 1895a: 480
(Dutch New
Guinea
).
Now
Amblyornis flavifrons
Rothschild, 1895
. See
Hartert, 1919: 127
;
Gilliard, 1969: 316–318
;
Diamond, 1982
,
1985
;
Frith and Frith, 2004: 297–298
;
Beehler, 2006
;
Beehler and Prawiradilaga, 2010
; and
Frith and Frith, 2009a: 396
.
HOLOTYPE
:
AMNH 679120
, adult male, collected at an unknown locality in what was then Dutch New
Guinea
, purchased from
van Renesse
van Duivenbode. From the Rothschild Collection.
COMMENTS: When the original description was written, Rothschild had a single specimen. (The head was illustrated in color in Rothschild and Hartert [(1896, 3: pl. 1, figs. 3 and 4)]. This specimen on which the description was based is the
holotype
. There was, however, an added footnote to the original description explaining that after the description went to press, Rothschild had received a second specimen. This specimen would be a
paratype
of
A. flavifrons
.
Hartert (1919: 127)
noted that by 1919 the Rothschild Collection had three male specimens. The third specimen has no type standing.The
holotype
and
paratype
,
AMNH 679121
, are in
AMNH
; the third is in
BMNH
as part of the Rothschild Bequest, no. 1939.12.9.13.
On AMNH 679121, someone whose handwriting I don’t recognize has written in red ink: ‘‘Typical’’ and ‘‘Co-Type’’ and it was cataloged as a cotype when it came to AMNH. Someone else has also noted on the label ‘‘not cotype,’’ and this is correct if the term
cotype
is being used in the sense of a ‘‘
syntype
,’’ but
cotype
also has been used at times in the sense of ‘‘paratype’’ in modern terminology. This confusion of usage is why the ICZN (1999: 80 (Recommendation 73E), 119) does not recognize the term
cotype
.
A note on the label of AMNH 679121 reads: ‘‘This specimen is figured in Sharpe’s Monograph of the Paradiseidae’’ dated ‘‘25/ 6.97.’’ This refers to
Sharpe (1898
, part 8, plate unnumbered, text page unnumbered). Sharpe, in his monograph, said: ‘‘The lower figure represents the typical example of
A. flavifrons
of the natural size.’’ This statement, and ‘‘Typical’’ and ‘‘Co-type’’ on the label leads me to believe that the plate is of Rothschild’s second specimen and the
paratype
of the name. The third specimen, in BMNH, bears no annotation (R. Prŷs-Jones, personal commun.).
The rediscovery of this species in the Foja Mountains,
Papua Province
,
Indonesia
, is one of the most exciting ornithological events of recent years. For information concerning its rediscovery, see
Diamond (1982
,
1985
),
Beehler (2006)
, and
Beehler and Prawiradilaga (2010)
.