Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History. Part 7. Passeriformes: Sylviidae, Muscicapidae, Platysteiridae, Maluridae, Acanthizidae, Monarchidae, Rhipiduridae, And Petroicidae
Author
LeCroy, M.
text
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
2008
2008-07-02
313
1
1
287
http://dx.doi.org/10.1206/313.1
journal article
10.1206/313.1
0003-0090
13223808
Malurus pulcherrimus stirlingi
Mathews
Malurus pulcherrimus stirlingi
Mathews, 1913b: 192
(
Stirling
Ranges).
Now
Malurus pulcherrimus
Gould,1844
. See
Schodde, 1982: 95
, and
Schodde and Mason, 1999: 88
.
HOLOTYPE
:
AMNH 602360
, male, collect- ed in the
Stirling Range
,
34.23S
,
117.50E
(
USBGN
, 1957b),
Western Australia
,
Australia
, on
22 October 1911
, by
F.L. Whitlock. From
the
Mathews Collection
via the
Rothschild Collection.
COMMENTS
: In the original description, Mathews gave his catalog number of the
type
as ‘‘10503’’, and indeed the data entered for that specimen agree with the data published for the
type
. However, the same data are also entered for his number 10499 (AMNH 602359). Catalog numbers are not present on the labels of either specimen, so there is no indication as to which one may be the
type
. The main characteristics given by Mathews to distinguish nominate
pulcherrimus
from
stirlingi
were that
stirlingi
had the ‘‘chestnut scapulars and the head much darker, and the ear-coverts lighter’’. Of the
two specimens
, AMNH 602360 has the head darker and the ear coverts slightly lighter, and it seems reasonable to assume that Mathews chose as
type
the specimen best demonstrating his perceived differences.
Seven paratypes
were cataloged at the same time:
AMNH 602356
(
Mathews
no. 10502), male
;
AMNH 602357
(10500), male
;
AMNH 602358
(10501), male
;
AMNH 602359
(10499), male:
AMNH 602361
(10498), male
;
AMNH 602362
(6148), female
;
and
AMNH 602363
(10497), female.
AMNH 602356
bears a yellow ‘‘
Figured’
’ label and was illustrated in
Mathews (1922e
: pl. 463, upper right fig., opp. p. 106, text p. 111).
Mathews
correctly gave the date of collection of the figured specimen as
16 September 1911
but did not say that it was a type.
He
had obtained it from
H.L. White
, but it, like the others, was collected by
Whitlock.