Rhamphozosterops sanfordi Mayr

Mary, 2011, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 9. Passeriformes: Zosteropidae And Meliphagidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (348), pp. 1-193 : 34

Rhamphozosterops sanfordi Mayr

Rhamphozosterops sanfordi Mayr, 1931d: 182 ( Ponape) .

Now Rukia longirostra ( Taka-Tsukasa and Yamashina, 1931) . See Mees, 1969: 231–232, and van Balen, 2008: 479–480.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 329094 , adult male, collected on Pohnpei (5 Ponape) Island, Caroline Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, on 20 December 1930, by William F. Coultas on the Whitney South Sea Expedition (no. 40988).

COMMENTS: Mayr cited the AMNH number of the holotype in the original description, but did not say how many specimens he examined. Twenty-one specimens were cataloged at AMNH ; the 20 paratypes are: males, AMNH 329093 , 329095–329105 , 329110 A ; females, AMNH 329106–329110 , 329111 , 329112 . Of these, the following were exchanged: AMNH 329095 and 329107 to ANSP ; AMNH 329099 and 399110A to ZMB in October 1932 ; AMNH 329101 to UMMZ in September 1984 .

Mayr’s name Rhamphozosterops sanfordi (4 November 1931) and Cinnyrorhyncha longirostra Taka-Tsukasa and Yamashina (15 October 1931: 599) were published only about three weeks apart, and Mayr contend- ed for some time that proof was lacking that longirostra was published first. By 1967, however, Mayr (1967: 321) had accepted the prior publication of longirostra . Mees (1969: 231–232) discussed this, and references to the dispute will be found there. In the original description of the genus, the generic name appeared as ‘‘ Cinny orhyncha, ’’ one of the r s apparently having fallen out after the type was set, because the authors commented on the new bird having a Cinnyris -like bill. A few lines later, the species was described as ‘‘ Cynnirorhyncha ’’ longirostra , an obvious typographical error.

Coultas’ collecting base on Pohnpei was at Rohnkite (5 Ronkiti), 06.49N, 158.10E ( Bryan, 1971), according to Coultas’ journal volume W, unpublished journals of the Whitney South Sea Expedition, Archives, Department of Ornithology, AMNH.