Cisticola fortis Lynes

LeCroy, M., 2008, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History. Part 7. Passeriformes: Sylviidae, Muscicapidae, Platysteiridae, Maluridae, Acanthizidae, Monarchidae, Rhipiduridae, And Petroicidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 313 (1), pp. 1-287 : 37-38

Cisticola fortis Lynes

Cisticola fortis Lynes, 1930: 321 (Pedreira, Bihe District, Angola).

Now Cisticola chiniana fortis Lynes, 1930 . See Parkes, 1987, Urban et al., 1997: 162, and Dean, 2000: 226–227.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 593512 , adult male, collected at Cuquema (5 Pedreira), 12.29S,

16.49E ( Dean, 2000: 376), Bie´, Angola, on 5 November 1904, by W.J. Ansorge (no. 520). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Lynes, in his original description, designated as the type ‘‘an adult male in fresh Summer dress collected by Dr. Ansorge, 5 November 1904, at Pedreira , Bihe District, Angola’ ’ and said that it was in the Rothschild Collection. AMNH 593512 is the only Rothschild Collection specimen that bears those data. It has, in addition to Ansorge’s field label and a Rothschild Museum label, a blank British Museum type label that has been noted by Lynes ‘‘propose for Summer Type of Cisticola fortis’ ’; someone has marked out ‘‘Summer’’.

A second specimen, AMNH 593510, an adult male in winter plumage, collected at N’Gungo, Angola, on 30 July 1901, by C.H. Pemberton, also bears a blank British Museum type label, annotated by Lynes ‘‘propose for Winter Type of Cisticola fortis’’. To this someone has added ‘‘Co-’’ in front of ‘‘Type’’. While Lynes (1930: 323, pl. 11, fig. 47) did describe the winter plumage of the adult male, there is no evidence that he intended to confer type status. He did, in fact, attribute the type specimen pictured in plate 11, figure 47 to Pemberton, but that is an error, as the data given for the specimen are those of the holotype collected by Ansorge. Because AMNH 593510 bears a type label, it has been retained in the type collection, but a label has been added to indicate the error.

Lynes (1930: 324) listed his type series, 14 of which, including the holotype, were collected by Ansorge, Pemberton, Callewaerts, Bohndorff, and Grauer and were held in the Rothschild Collection. The 13 paratypes, now in AMNH, are 593510, 593511, and 593513–593523. Other paratypes are in other collections, including 10 in RMCA ( Louette et al., 2002: 46–47).