Tasmanornis humilis archibaldi 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 : 129

[ Tasmanornis humilis archibaldi Mathews ]

Tasmanornis humilis archibaldi Mathews, 1922e: 38 (Launceston) .

Now Sericornis frontalis humilis Gould, 1838 . See Schodde and Mason, 1999: 165–171.

Mathews (1922e: 38) said ‘‘I therefore fix South Tasmania as the type locality of Gould’s S. humilis and propose Tasmanornis humilis archibaldi subsp. nov. for the Launceston (Northern) form which I find to differ exactly as pointed out by A.J. Campbell, viz. in its smaller size, paler colour, etc.’’ This apparently refers to the statement by Archibald G. Campbell (1905: 115): ‘‘Of all genera, however, the one in which the greatest variation is shown is Sericornis . The specimens from Launceston, besides varying in colour, are much smaller than those from Hobart.’’ There are measurements on p. 116 of Campbell’s paper and further comments on the genus Sericornis on p. 121. It would thus seem that the Launceston specimens in Campbell’s collection should be considered the type series.

There are eight specimens from the Mathews Collection in AMNH labeled ‘‘George [5 Gorge] Creek’’ or ‘‘Russel’s Plains’’ by collectors P.C. or H. Thompson, who lived in Launceston ( Whittell, 1954: 715), but there is no indication that Mathews intended any one of them as a type.

In del Hoyo et al. (2007: 583), Sericornis humilis is treated as a full species.