Toxostoma lecontei Lawrence, 1851

LeCROY, M. A. R. Y., 2003, TYPE SPECIMENS OF BIRDS IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. PART 5. PASSERIFORMES: ALAUDIDAE, HIRUNDINIDAE, MOTACILLIDAE, CAMPEPHAGIDAE, PYCNONOTIDAE, IRENIDAE, LANIIDAE, VANGIDAE, BOMBYCILLIDAE, DULIDAE, CINCLIDAE, TROGLODYTIDAE, AND MIMIDAE, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 278 (278), pp. 1-156 : 129

Toxostoma lecontei Lawrence

Toxostoma lecontei Lawrence, 1851: 121 (California, near the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers).

Now Toxostoma lecontei lecontei Lawrence, 1851 . See Zink et al., 1997, 1999, American Ornithologists’ Union, 1998: 521, and Brewer and MacKay, 2001: 238.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 39427 , unsexed adult, collected near the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers (= Fort Yuma ), California, by Dr. John L. LeConte. From the George N. Lawrence Collection.

COMMENTS: Three specimens of this taxon came to AMNH with the Lawrence Collection. The above specimen is the only one collected by LeConte. The original LeConte label is not present. The Lawrence label gives the locality as Gila River on the back and on the front ‘‘California’’, which has been crossed out and Fort Yuma added, probably by Lawrence. It is marked ‘‘type’’ by Lawrence.

In the original description, only the LeConte specimen is mentioned. At least one of the other specimens has no standing as a paratype. It is AMNH 39248, and unlike most of Lawrence’s specimens, it still has the original field label attached. It was collected by F. Stephens (no. 2729), 8 April 1885, Agua Caliente, Colorado Desert, and was sexed as a female. Someone has added to the Lawrence Collection label ‘‘[Palm Springs, Calif.]’’, and this is correct as Palm Springs is today surrounded by the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation in the Colorado Desert ( Seltzer, 1962: 434, 1418). Obviously, it was collected too late to have been in Lawrence’s hand when the taxon was described. The second specimen, AMNH 39249, was also collected by Stephens, but the field label is missing. It probably also has no standing as a paratype.

The holotype was collected by John Lawrence LeConte, a well­known entomologist, who traveled from San Diego across the Sonoran Desert to the eastern border of Arizona in the early 1850s ( Mearns and Mearns, 1992: 273–277). Along the way he collected the holotype of this taxon ‘‘near the junction of the Colorado and Gila rivers.’’ This is where Fort Yuma (now Yuma, Arizona) was situated. It seems immaterial to query which side of the river the bird came from ( Phillips, 1986: 193; American Ornithologists’ Union, 1998: 521).