Mirafra javanica melvillensis Mathews, 1912

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 : 6

Mirafra javanica melvillensis Mathews

Mirafra javanica melvillensis Mathews, 1912d: 102 (Melville Island, Northern Territory).

Now Mirafra javanica melvillensis Mathews, 1912 . See Schodde and Mason, 1999: 715, 717.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 556406 , male, collected 10 mi. E. of Gordon Point , Melville Island , Northern Territory, Australia, on 3 June 1912, by John Porter Rogers (no. 3580). From the Mathews Collection (no. 13605) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: The Mathews Collection number is cited in the original description. This specimen holds the following four labels: Rogers’ field label, Mathews’ type label, yellow Mathews label indicating it was illustrated in Mathews (1925 – 1927, pt. 4, p. 145 and pl. 559), and the Rothschild type label.

Gordon Point is situated on Apsley Strait at ca. 11°30′S, 130°40′E (see map in Campbell, 1834). Mathews (1914: 92) stated that ‘‘the only plains on [Melville Island] lie about 10 miles east of Gordon Point’’.