Petrochelidon nigricans caleyi Mathews

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 : 37-38

Petrochelidon nigricans caleyi Mathews

Petrochelidon nigricans caleyi Mathews, 1913b: 65 (Albury, New South Wales).

Now Petrochelidon nigricans neglecta Mathews, 1912 . See Peters, 1960b: 120, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 676, and Dickinson et al., 2001b: 150, 155.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 560815 , adult male, collected at Albury , 36°03′S, 146°53′E (Times Atlas), New South Wales, Australia, in October 1903. From the Mathews Collection (no. 1552) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: This is the only Albury specimen that came to AMNH. The Mathews Collection number was not mentioned in the original description but appears on the green Mathews type label. There is no collector’s name in the catalog or associated with this specimen. The pink Mathews label bears the number 431, which refers to the number of this species in Mathews (1908) Handlist. Mathews did not indicate how many specimens he had.

Peters (1960b: 120) spelled this taxon cayleyi, perhaps deciding that the original spelling was a misspelling. However, Mathews consistently spelled it caleyi and Caleya , undoubtedly honoring George Caley, who made important early collections of New South Wales birds (see Whittell, 1954: 99–100, and Webb, 1990). Caley’s collections were deposited originally in the Museum of the Linnean Society of London ( Vigors and Horsfield, 1827) and later transferred to BMNH ( Sharpe, 1906: 414–415, Kinnear, 1932). Vigors and Horsfield (1827: 190) named Hirundo pyrrhonota , based on a Latham manuscript name that was later said to be a synonym of Hirundo nigricans Vieillot, 1817 ( Sharpe, 1885: 190), nec Hirundo pyrrhonota Vieillot, 1817 ( Sharpe, 1885: 193). The implication, by Vigors and Horsfield (1827: 140), who published extensive field notes on this taxon written by Caley, and by Sharpe (1906: 415), was that the type was collected by Caley in New South Wales. It is logical to think that Mathews, believing that the type of H. pyrrhonota Vigors and Horsfield was based on a Caley specimen from New South Wales, would name his new taxon after Caley.

Mathews (1913b: 65) stated that Lesson had corrected the type locality of Hirundo nigricans to Hobart, Tasmania, and that Hirundo pyrrhonota Vigors and Horsfield was preoccupied by Hirundo pyrrhonota Vieillot, 1817 . Had he followed the usual procedure in such a case, Mathews would have supplied a new name for Hirundo pyrrhonota Vigors and Horsfield. Instead , he ( Mathews, 1913b: 65) introduced the name Petrochelidon nigricans caleyi and designated as the type the above specimen from Albury, New South Wales.

Later, the type of H. pyrrhonota Vigors and Horsfield , now in BMNH, was said to be a specimen collected on 9 December 1802 in the western Gulf of Carpentaria by Robert Brown, who was naturalist on Capt. M. Flinders’ voyage in H.M.S. Investigator ( Kinnear, 1932, and Warren and Harrison, 1971: 455). Recent studies ( Webb, 1995, Vallance et al., 2001) have shown that there was much contact between Caley and Brown during the latter’s stay in Australia and they remained friends after their return to England. The possibility remains that the specimen was collected by Caley near his home at Parramatta and given to Brown, who deposited it with his own collection in the Linnean Society, or that Caley and Brown specimens later were confused when both collections went to BMNH in 1863. Wheeler (1995: 239, 242) noted that most of the materials studied by Vigors and Horsfield was collected by Caley and that Brown’s specimens were said to be in bad condition.

Schodde and Mason (1999: 676) have shown that Tasmanian breeding birds of this species, as well as Tasmanian migrants to eastern Australia, are P. nigricans nigricans , whereas Australian mainland breeding birds, both from the east and the west, as well as migrants to some islands, are P. nigricans neglecta . Compared with specimens collected during the breeding season in Tasmania and in New South Wales, the type of P. n. caleyi (wing 106 mm) agrees with the paler New South Wales specimens and caleyi is thus a synonym of P. nigricans neglecta Mathews.

The type of Hirundo pyrrhonota Vigors and Horsfield was collected on 9 December 1802 ( Warren and Harrison, 1971: 455), presumably a breeding bird. According to the recent treatment by Schodde and Mason (1999: 676) this preoccupied name also should prove to be a synonym of P. nigricans neglecta .