Rhipidura flabellifera frerei 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 : 225-226

Rhipidura flabellifera frerei Mathews

Rhipidura flabellifera frerei Mathews, 1912a: 319 (Bartle Frere, North Queensland).

Now Rhipidura albiscapa alisteri Mathews, 1911 . See Ford, 1981b: 129–130, and Schodde and Mason, 1999: 481–483.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 650293 , adult male, collected on Bartle Frere , 17.23S, 145.49E ( USBGN, 1957b), Queensland, Australia, on 23 May 1900, by E. Olive for Herbert C. Robinson (no. 1247). From the Mathews Collection (no. 5883) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews gave his catalog number of the holotype as 5885. Ford (1981b: 130) has already called attention to this error; the specimen opposite Mathews’ number 5885 is Myiagra rubecula . The discrepancy apparently resulted from a misprint in the original description, because Mathews’ type label has the correct number, 5883, written on it. The Rothschild type label has the incorrect number. Olive’s original label has ‘‘Type’’ written on it in Mathews’ hand. It was the only specimen of Rhipidura cataloged by Mathews at that time. The number ‘‘107’’ written on his label by Olive is apparently a species number, because a second specimen, AMNH 650294, from Bartle Frere has the same number, whereas Robinson’s number on that specimen is ‘‘1246’’; this latter specimen is not a paratype, as it was never in Mathews collection.

Mathews (1912a: 319) gave the range of frerei as ‘‘ Queensland (Bartle Frere)’’; the holotype was the only specimen Mathews had from that locality.

Schodde and Mason (1999: 479–480) considered three allospecies to comprise the forms in the Rhipidura fuliginosa complex, with one of these being Australian Rhipidura albiscapa . Ford’s (1981b: 130) careful study showed that this holotype of R. f. frerei is a migrant individual of R. albiscapa alisteri .