Aegintha ruficauda connectens Mathews

Aegintha ruficauda connectens Mathews, 1912a: 431 (Queensland (Rockhampton)).

Now Neochmia ruficauda ruficauda (Gould, 1837) . See Mayr et al., 1968: 357; Schodde and Mason, 1999: 752–753; Dickinson, 2003: 732; and Payne, 2010: 354.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 721935, adult male, collected at ‘‘Rockhampton,’’ 23.23S, 150.30E (USBGN, 1957), Queensland, Australia, in 1861, by John Jardine. From the Mathews Collection (9346) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Mathews cited his catalog number of the type. When he introduced connectens, he added the locality ‘‘Rockhampton,’’ which does not appear on the original label. Presumably, this was because John Jardine was, at the time this specimen was collected, the Police Magistrate in Rockhampton (Whittell, 1954: 376). In Mathews’ catalog, the holotype was noted as having been obtained from the Rothschild Collection; it bears, in addition to the Jardine label, a Rothschild label (not printed ‘‘Collection G.M. Mathews’’), Rothschild and Mathews type labels, and a ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it served as the model for Mathews (1926: 227, pl. 571, opp. p. 226, lower fig., under Bathilda ruficauda); it was there confirmed as the type of connectens. Mathews had a second specimen from Rockhampton, paratype AMNH 721936 (Mathews no. 7307), female, 1897; this specimen was obtained from T. Thorpe and cataloged in February 1911. Another Jardine specimen collected in 1861 was never in the Mathews Collection.