Zosterops subatrifrons A.B. Meyer and Wiglesworth

Mary, 2011, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 9. Passeriformes: Zosteropidae And Meliphagidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (348), pp. 1-193 : 17

Zosterops subatrifrons A.B. Meyer and Wiglesworth

Zosterops subatrifrons A.B. Meyer and Wiglesworth, 1896: 17 (Insula Peling) .

Now Zosterops atrifrons subatrifrons A.B. Meyer and Wiglesworth, 1896 . See Mees, 1961a: 71–72, White and Bruce, 1986: 416, and van Balen, 2008: 455–456.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 700370, AMNH 700- 371, AMNH 700372, AMNH 700373 (immature), all collected on Peleng Island, 01.20S, 123.10E ( White and Bruce, 1986: 491), Banggai Islands, Indonesia, in May–August 1895, by collectors for C.W. Cursham. From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: No type was designated in the original description; the number of specimens was not given and Cursham’s name was not mentioned, yet the dates May–August 1895 were provided, and all of these specimens were labeled ‘‘Cotypus’’ on the original label. Meyer and Wiglesworth (1898: 9) noted that Charles W. Cursham, a merchant at Menado, north Sulawesi, had been ‘‘engaged by A.B. Meyer and the Hon. W. Rothschild’’ to collect in Minahassa and on small neighboring islands. They then noted that ‘‘in our work [ Meyer and Wiglesworth, 1895, 1896] specimens from this source are marked: ‘native collectors’ or ‘native hunters’ (‘nat. coll.’, ‘nat. hunt.’) and some of these skins have passed into other museums also.’’ Meyer and Wiglesworth (1898: pl. 30) illustrated Z. subatrifrons .

Meyer and Wiglesworth (1898: 490) listed only one adult by number, C 14535, but did not give it type status, adding that their series of eight specimens was in Dresden and the Tring Museum (5 Rothschild Collection). Eck and Quaisser (2004: 298) listed three syntypes still in SMTD and syntype C 14535 as having been exchanged with BMNH. Together with the four syntypes from the Rothschild Collection listed above, all of the eight original specimens are accounted for. These specimens had not been included previously in the AMNH type series, and AMNH type labels have been added to confirm their status.