Amytornis whitei Mathews, 1910

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 : 122

Amytornis whitei Mathews

Amytornis whitei Mathews, 1910c: 34 (Coongan R., North-western Australia).

Now Amytornis striatus whitei Mathews, 1910 . See Schodde, 1982: 160, and Schodde and Mason, 1999: 114.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 598122 , adult male, collected on the Pilbara Goldfield , 21.15S, 118.18E ( USBGN, 1957b), Coongan River, Western Australia, Australia, on 2 August 1908, by F.L. Whitlock. From the Mathews Collection (no. 3808) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In his original description, Mathews did not mention a type, even though from the title of the note, he apparently had only one specimen with him. However, he had two specimens from the Coongan River in his collection. The above specimen bears a Mathews Collection label, marked ‘‘Type’’ by him and with his catalog number, 3808. It also bears his type label, with his catalog number repeated. Additionally, quite uncharacteristically, he marked this entry in his catalog as ‘‘type’’. Information given in the original description does not allow one to discriminate between the two specimens, but given the many indications that Mathews intended for the specimen that is now AMNH 598122 to be his type, I hereby designate it the lectotype of Amytornis whitei in order to remove the ambiguity unresolved by Mathews.

Whitlock (in Mathews, 1923a: 202) said: ‘‘I shot one pair for identification’’. The second specimen, AMNH 598123 (Mathews no. 3809), collected at the same locality on 9 August 1908 by Whitlock, is the paralectotype. It is not marked ‘‘Type’’ in Mathews’ catalog. Neither of these specimens bears a yellow ‘‘Figured’’ label; specimens of M. striatus illustrated in Mathews (1923a: pl. 470, two right-hand figs., opp. p. 193, text p. 201), although labeled Mystisa whitei (Mathews) , actually refer to Amytornis striatus oweni (Mathews) (see above). Reference by Mathews (1930: 633) to an illustration in Emu is to an illustration of a mounted specimen of Amytornis striatus whitei in the H.L. White Collection in the MV (see A.J. Campbell, 1923: pl. 50 [not 40], opp. p. 161).

ACANTHIZIDAE