Amydrus montanus van Someren

Lecroy, Mary, 2014, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, And Corvidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2014 (393), pp. 1-165 : 36

Amydrus montanus van Someren

Amydrus montanus van Someren, 1919: 52 (Mt. Elgon) .

Now Onychognathus morio subspecies?. See van Someren, 1922a: 132; Hartert, 1928: 192; Sclater, 1930: 665; Amadon, 1956: 24–25; 1962a: 89; Zimmerman et al., 1999: 511; Fry et al., 2000: 582–584; Dickinson, 2003: 658; and Craig and Feare, 2009: 740–741.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 669360 , adult male, collected on Mount Elgon , 9000–10,000 feet, 01.07N, 34.35E (Times Atlas), Kenya- Uganda border, on 15 March 1916. From the V.G.L. van Someren Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, van Someren designated as type of montanus a male in the Rothschild Collection, collected on Mount Elgon on 15 March 1916 and noted that four males and three females were collected at 9000 ft. Only a single paratype came to AMNH: Mount Elgon, AMNH 669361, female, collected in June 1915. Amadon (1956: 24–25) pointed out the clinal and individual variation in O. morio from South Africa to Ethiopia and discussed the two specimens of montanus in AMNH. He did not believe that montanus should be recognized and listed it as a synonym of rueppellii ( Amadon, 1962a: 89). Fry et al. (2000: 582) considered the nominate race to include the range of the species except for

rueppellii, the range of which they gave as

Ethiopia; measurements were included for large series of specimens. This was followed by Dickinson, except that he also included southeastern Sudan in the range of O. morio rueppellii . Craig and Feare (2009: 740) expanded the range of rueppellii to include northern Kenya and perhaps also northeastern Uganda. The measurements of the two specimens of montanus in the type series are: AMNH 669360, male (type), wing 161, tail 148; AMNH 669361, female (paratype), wing 155, tail 139. Given the clinal nature of the size changes from south to north and the large individual variation in measurements, the placement of the Mount Elgon specimens seems uncertain.