Cistothorus aequatorialis Lawrence

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 : 111

Cistothorus aequatorialis Lawrence

Cistothorus aequatorialis Lawrence, 1871a: 3 (Pichincha, Ecuador).

Now Cistothorus platensis aequatorialis Lawrence ,

1871. See Herkert et al., 2001: 4, and Brewer and

MacKay, 2001: 119.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 156657 , adult male, collected at Pichincha, 00°10′S, 78°33′W ( Paynter, 1993: 153), Ecuador.

COMMENTS: Lawrence, in his original description, noted that the type was ‘‘in the Museum of Vassar College [Poughkeepsie, New York], from the collection of Prof. J. Orton’’. The above specimen no longer has an original label, but it was included among nine type specimens deposited by Vassar on extended loan to the AMNH in 1921 and later, in 1965, presented to AMNH. The birds received AMNH numbers in 1921, and a note was made in the catalog at that time that they were types belonging to Vassar and on loan to AMNH. The Department of Ornithology Archives also has detailed correspondence with regard to this arrangement and the later presentation. Professor James Orton was on the faculty at Vassar beginning in 1869, and he had collected in Ecuador in the area around Quito between August and October 1867, including Cerro Pichincha (see Orton, 1870). Lawrence (1871a) only mentioned the ‘‘type’’ in the description of this taxon, whereas in the same paper he used the word ‘‘types’’ when he had more than one specimen at his disposal (see Lawrence, 1871a: 7, 9, 12). Thus, there is every reason to think that the above specimen is the holotype.