Nilaus afer hilgerti Neumann, 1907

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 : 94

Nilaus afer hilgerti Neumann

Nilaus afer hilgerti Neumann, 1907a: 362 (Kassam­ Fluss).

Now Nilaus afer afer (Latham, 1801) . See Mackworth­Praed and Grant, 1955: 642, and Fry et al., 2000: 472.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 664367 , adult male, collected on the Kassam River, ca. 09°14′N, 40°06′E ( R. J. Dowsett, personal commun.), on 24 June 1903, by P.C. Zaphiro. From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Neumann (1907a: 343) had borrowed specimens from the Rothschild Collection, and he reported examining 15 Zaphiro specimens, which he marked ‘‘hilgerti Neum.’’ The type was said to be a male collected on the Kassam River on 24 June 1903, but among the borrowed specimens there are two bearing these data. AMNH 664367 bears the Rothschild type label as well as the original Zaphiro label and the Rothschild Collection label, the reverse of which reads ‘‘hilgerti Neum. Typus’’, written by Neumann. But the appearance of ‘‘Typus’’ written on the label is not sufficient evidence of its status and Hartert (1920: 449) did not distinguish between these two specimens when he listed Rothschild types. This is obviously the specimen intended as the type by Neumann and accepted as the type by Hartert, but because there is a second specimen bearing the same data, I hereby designate AMNH 664367 the lectotype to avoid possible future confusion. AMNH 664366 is the paralectotype.