Sericornis laevigaster tweedi Mathews

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 : 132

Sericornis laevigaster tweedi Mathews

Sericornis laevigaster tweedi Mathews, 1922e: 16 (Tweed River).

Now Sericornis frontalis tweedi Mathews, 1922 . See Schodde and Mason, 1999: 165–171.

Syntype: AMNH 601504, adult male, collected at Tumbulgum, 28.17S, 153.28E (USBGN, 1957b), Tweed River, New South Wales, Australia, on 2 November 1907, by S.A. White. From the Mathews Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Mathews did not designate a type but said that tweedi has a broad black bar across the tail with no white tips. The above specimen is the only Mathews specimen from the Tweed River in AMNH. It is in very poor plumage and the tail is worn. A few feathers look as though there may have been a black bar across the tail, and if it had white tips on the tail, they have worn away. Mellor (1908b: 208), as Secretary of the South Australian Ornithological Association, reported that he and S.A. White had shown skins of birds procured on an excursion in New South Wales, mainly on the Tweed River, in connection with the Seventh Session of the Australian Ornithologists’ Union, held in late October 1907 ( Anonymous, 1908: 126); however, no mention was made of which species were collected. Mellor (1908a: 185), however, did list a Sericornis sp. seen on the Tweed River. The initials ‘‘SAW’’ appear on the original label, and AMNH 601504 was almost certainly collected on that excursion. I was unable to find the specimen listed in Mathews’ catalog and do not know when Mathews acquired it, although it was undoubtedly before 1922. Someone has written ‘‘ Type of tweedi?’’ on the reverse of one label. This specimen had not previously been included in the AMNH type collection.

The South Australian Museum, Adelaide, holds the bulk of the S.A. White Collection. It includes one specimen of Sericornis from Tumbulgum. ‘‘Ours was collected on 8 Nov. and intriguingly whoever wrote the label put 1908 on it. Fortunately they also wrote ‘‘AOU 7th Congress’’ on the label … so we can safely assume that 1908 was a mistake for 1907. The label does not state that it is a type specimen. The tail of our specimen has a very faint dark subterminal band and very slightly paler tips to the feathers (only slightly worn)’’ (P. Horton and B. Blaylock, personal commun.). This specimen is also a syntype.