Rhipidura squamata henrici Hartert

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 : 233

Rhipidura squamata henrici Hartert

Rhipidura squamata henrici Hartert, 1918b: 59 (Kilsoein, Koer group).

Now Rhipidura dryas henrici Hartert, 1918 . See White and Bruce, 1986: 372–373, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 476–478, del Hoyo et al., 2006: 231, and below.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 650732 , adult female, collected at Kilsoein , Kur (5 Koer) group, 05.20S, 132.00E ( USBGN, 1982a), Moluccas, Indonesia, on 2 July 1899, by Heinrich Kühn (no. 1287). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Hartert gave Kühn’s unique field number of the holotype in the original description and listed islands represented in the type series of henrici . The following specimens from those localities are paratypes: Little Kai group: Godan Island , AMNH 650722 ; Cape Ngidioen , AMNH 650723 , 650724 ; Ohimas Island , AMNH 650725 ; Soa Island , AMNH 650726 , 650727 ; Roemadan Island , AMNH 650728 ; Taam Island : AMNH 650729 and 650730 ; Kilsoein, Koer Islands : AMNH 650731 and 650733 ; Maar Island, Ceram Laut Islands : AMNH 650734 ; Manggoer Islands : AMNH 650735 and 650736 ; and Babi Island, Aru Islands: AMNH 650737 , 650738 , and 650739. Of these, AMNH 650737 was exchanged to FMNH in the early 1960s .

Schodde and Mathews (1977: 22) studied specimens collected on Taam Island and recognized R. rufifrons henrici . White and Bruce (1986: 372–373) included squamata as a subspecies of R. rufifrons and treated henrici as a synonym of squamata , but they noted that differences listed by Hartert in his description of henrici should perhaps be reevaluated. I have compared all of Hartert’s specimens of henrici with the same specimens of squamata from Banda that Hartert used and find that the differences do not seem to be a matter of fading. Specimens of henrici , except for the single specimen from Maar Island mentioned by Hartert as being in poor condition, are a brighter rufous-cinnamon on the back and upper central tail feathers as well as having brighter and wider edges to the secondaries and inner primaries than do specimens of squamata ; therefore, I have retained henrici as a valid taxon.

Schodde and Mason (1999: 476–478) separated the group of populations of the Rhipidura rufifrons complex from the Lesser Sunda Islands, northern Australia, and southern New Guinea as the species Rhipidura dryas , including within it three groups of populations: the dryas cluster, the elegantula cluster, and the squamata cluster, with the last comprising populations from the southeastern Moluccas to the western Papuan and Kai islands. R. d. henrici falls within that last cluster.