Symposiachrus trivirgatus stalkeri 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 : 202-203

Symposiachrus trivirgatus stalkeri Mathews

Symposiachrus trivirgatus stalkeri Mathews 1916a: 59 (Inkerman) .

Now Monarcha trivirgatus gouldii G.R. Gray, 1861 . See Watson et al., 1986c: 509, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 495–496, and Filardi and Smith, 2005.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 654752 , adult male, collected at Inkerman , 19.45S, 147.29E ( Storr, 1984: 183), ‘‘ Ironbark Ranges’ ’, Queensland, Australia, in September 1907, by Wilfred Stalker. From the Mathews Collection (no. 1886) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews said only that his type of stalkeri was from Inkerman; there were two such specimens in his collection. AMNH 654752 does not bear a Mathews type label, but ‘‘Type’’ in his hand is written on the Mathews Collection label, as is his catalog number 1866; it also bears a Rothschild type label. The number ‘‘499’’ that appears on Mathews’ label is the number of this species in Mathews (1908a).

The second Inkerman specimen is AMNH 654753 (Mathews no. 1887), male, collected at Inkerman, Spring Ranges , Queensland, in September 1907, also by Stalker. This second specimen bears, in addition to Stalker’s label and a Rothschild Museum label printed ‘‘ Ex. coll. G.M. Mathews’ ’, a yellow ‘‘ Figured’ ’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in Mathews (1921b: pl. 410, lower, opp. p. 85). The description of the figured bird is on p. 86 where the collecting locality is given as ‘‘ Inkerman Spring Ranges’ ’; however, there is no indication that the figured bird is the type. I therefore consider that AMNH 654752 from the ‘‘Ironbark Ranges’’ is the holotype, and AMNH 654753 the paratype, of Symposiachrus trivirgatus stalkeri .

Stalker’s collection at Inkerman Station was made for Sir William Ingram and reported on by his son, Collingwood Ingram (1908), where these two specimens are listed as Piezorhynchus gouldi (sic). Ingram (1908: 460) placed Inkerman Station ca. 50 mi southwest (5 southeast?) of Townsville in 20 ° S, 147 ° E, and about 10 mi from the banks of the Burdekin River. Stalker’s given name was Wilfred ( Ogilvie-Grant, 1915: vi), contra Ingram (1908) and Whittell (1954: 680–681).

Schodde and Mason (1999: 495–496) named Monarcha trivirgatus melanorrhoa from northeast Queensland, with Inkerman shown on their map in a zone of intergradation between melanorrhoa and gouldii. Mathews’ two Inkerman specimens agree with gouldii in color, in having upper tail coverts concolorous with the back, and in having the white tip on the inner vane of the third outer rectrix short in males, measuring 12 mm in both specimens.

See Duncan (1937: 72) for publication of gouldii in 1861, rather than in 1860.