Monarcha infelix coultasi Mayr

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 : 203

Monarcha infelix coultasi Mayr

Monarcha infelix coultasi Mayr, 1955: 28 (Rambutyo Island, Admiralty Islands).

Now Monarcha infelix coultasi Mayr, 1955 . See Filardi and Smith, 2005, and del Hoyo et al., 2006: 311.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 335263 , adult male, collected on Rambutyo Island, 02.20S, 147.50E ( Papua New Guinea, 1984), Admiralty Islands, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea, on 24 March 1934, by William F. Coultas on the Whitney South Sea Expedition (no. 45430).

COMMENTS: Mayr cited the AMNH number of the holotype in the original description ; paratypes are: AMNH 335258 , immature female, AMNH 335259–335262 and 335264–335267, males, and AMNH 335268– 335271 , females, all collected by Coultas on Rambutyo in March and April 1934 .

Coates (1990: 160) queried the validity of this subspecies, given the variable population on Manus Island. A check of the AMNH specimens of the two subspecies of M. infelix supports continued recognition of coultasi. Of 17 males and 10 females of M. i. infelix only one female has a few white feathers in the rump and upper tail coverts ; the central tail feathers are entirely or mostly black; and when there is white at the base of these feathers, it is covered by the black coverts in the skins. In the one specimen that seems to have the feathers mostly white, the central feathers are missing. Specimens of coultasi have much white in the rump and upper tail coverts and these feathers are sometimes entirely white; the central tail feathers of males are mostly white, tipped with black; females have broader black tips to these feathers, but white shows at the base below the coverts.