Anthus australis rogersi Mathews, 1913

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 : 44

Anthus australis rogersi Mathews

Anthus australis rogersi Mathews, 1913a: 193 (Melville Island).

Now Anthus australis rogersi Mathews, 1913 . See Schodde and Mason, 1999: 738.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 572929 , adult male, collected on Saunders Creek , Melville Island, Northern Territory, Australia, on 12 August 1912, by John P. Rogers (no. 3878). From the Mathews Collection (no. 15789) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: This specimen bears both the Mathews and the Rothschild type labels, and the Mathews Collection number was cited in the original description. Mathews did not say how many specimens he had, only that the range of rogersi was Melville Island. AMNH 572930–572935 are paratypes, all collected by Rogers on Melville Island in 1912. Of these, AMNH 572934, a female from Sampan Creek, bears the yellow Mathews label indicating that it was figured in Mathews (1925 – 1927, pt. 4, pl. 558).

Many authors (e.g., Christidis and Boles, 1994) have included this taxon in Anthus novaeseelandiae . Schodde and Mason (1999: 739) and other recent authors have treated novaeseelandiae as a superspecies, with novaezeelandiae and australis as full species. No two authors seem to agree on which subspecies are valid. The reader is referred to Schodde and Mason (1999: 739–740) for a discussion of various treatments.