Rhipidura verreauxi Marie

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 : 228-229

Rhipidura verreauxi Marie

Rhipidura verreauxi Marie, 1870: 326 (Nouvelle-Calédonie) .

Now Rhipidura verreauxi verreauxi Marie, 1870 . See Mayr, 1931b:10, Watson and Mayr, 1986: 548, Dickinson and Watling, 2006, and del Hoyo et al., 2006: 226–227.

Probable Holotype: AMNH 7896 , adult male, collected on New Caledonia. From the Verreaux Collection (no. 2581).

COMMENTS: In the original description, there was no indication of the number of specimens, with only one set of measurements being given. The type (or types) had been brought back from New Caledonia by Marie some years before the description was written and was said to be in the ‘‘Collection de l’Exposition permanente des colonies’’. The original label, which has been pasted to the back of the AMNH type label, bears in addition to the Verreaux number, ‘‘ Rhipidura Verreauxi Marie´, Nlle. Calédonie, s, (type)’’.

C. Jouanin (1962: 269, and personal commun.) has very kindly responded to an inquiry on my behalf by F. Vuilleumier concerning this exposition. The ‘‘‘Exposition permanente des Produits de l’Algérie et des colonies’ [its exact title] was exhibited in the ‘Palais de l’Industrie’, built from 1852 to 1855, where was set up the ‘Exposition universelle de 1855’.’’ Apparently, the Exposition was on view only in 1855.

Jouanin (personal commun.) had no information on exactly when the birds exhibited in the ‘‘Palais de l’Industrie’’ were dispersed, or by whom they were acquired. However, Verreaux and des Murs (1860, 1862) reported on the collection made in New Caledonia expressly for this exposition and named a number of new forms, the types of which went to MNHN. Apparently, the collection came into the authors’ hands after the Exposition was closed. However, in their report ( Verreaux and des Murs, 1860: 392) the only New Caledonia Rhipidura was identified as R. albiscapa , indicating that Marie’s specimen(s) either had not passed through their hands at that time or publication was reserved for Marie. Jouanin found that there is no specimen of verreauxi in MNHN collections, making it most probable that this specimen named for Verreaux was deposited in his collection and is the holotype. It was purchased as part of the Verreaux Collection by D.G. Elliot for AMNH in 1870, shortly after its founding in 1869. It was formerly mounted, as were all of the specimens purchased by Elliot.