Amytornis woodwardi Hartert, 1905

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 : 119-120

Amytornis woodwardi Hartert

Amytornis woodwardi Hartert, 1905e: 30 (10 miles east of South Alligator River, about 85 miles from the coast).

Now Amytornis woodwardi Hartert, 1905 . See Schodde, 1982: 169, and Schodde and Mason 1999: 109.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 598128 , adult male, collected in the granite ranges, 10 mi east of the South Alligator River , 12.10S, 132.23E ( Storr, 1977: 113), about 85 mi from the coast, Northern Territory, Australia, on 4 July 1903, by J.T. Tunney (no. 878). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Hartert (1905a) reported on the entire collection made by Tunney, who was sponsored jointly by Rothschild and the WAM. In that initial report he ( Hartert, 1905a: 225) tentatively identified this species as A. housei . He had a series of 16 specimens, for each of which he listed a four-digit number. These temporary numbers were given at WAM to birds and mammals collected by Tunney from 1901 to 1903, prior to their being sent to Hartert for study (R. Johnstone, personal commun.). When the WAM share was returned, they were given permanent WAM catalog numbers. Three-digit numbers on Tunney’s labels are his field numbers. In the subsequent original description of woodwardi, Hartert (1905e: 30) cited the number ‘‘1305’’ for the holotype, its preliminary WAM number. Of the 15 paratypes, 10 are now in AMNH; in the following list, the AMNH number is followed by the four-digit WAM number and the three-digit Tunney number: AMNH 265501 (1553, 918), 598129 (1551, 896), 598130 (1559, 897), 598131 (1560, 924), 598132 (1549, 922), 598133 (1558, 910), 598134 (7573, 898), 598135 (1303, 881), 598136 (1306, 879), and 598137 (7575, 904). AMNH 265501 was exchanged to AMNH by Rothschild in 1928. AMNH 598134 and 598137 were part of the Mathews Collection; they were collected by Tunney at the same time and were part of the series on which Hartert based his description. Mathews later obtained these specimens from WAM, where they had received permanent WAM numbers (see Magnamytis alligator below). Other paratypes are in WAM.

All of these specimens were collected between between 4 July and 14 August 1903 and are marked as having come from the granite ranges, 10 mi east of the South Alligator River. Storr (1966: 64) noted that there is some question as to exactly where Tunney was during this period. However, later fieldwork by Schodde and Mason (1975: 12–13) indicated that Tunney was probably in the catchment of Barramundi Creek, where the sandstone hills ‘‘are much rounded and at a distance have the appearance of granite ranges. All Tunney’s references to granite in connection with birds that inhabit sandstone ought to be viewed with caution.’’