Cracticus torquatus ethelae Mathews

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 : 69

Cracticus torquatus ethelae Mathews

Cracticus torquatus ethelae Mathews, 1912a: 375 (Eyre’s Peninsula, South Australia).

Now Cracticus torquatus leucopterus Gould, 1848 . See Amadon, 1951: 6–7; 1962b: 166; Schodde and Mason, 1999: 537–539; Dickinson, 2003: 463; and Russell and Rowley, 2009: 337–338.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 673503 , adult male, collected on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula

(as on label), South Australia, Australia, on 30 August 1911, by S.A. White (no. 158). From the Mathews Collection (no. 9579) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews gave his catalog number of the holotype in the original description and South Australia as the range. He apparently had only two additional specimens, both paratypes: Arno Bay , Eyre Peninsula , AMNH 673504 , female, 7 September 1911, collected by S.A. White (no. 61) ; northwest Port Augusta , AMNH 673506 , sex?, 4 October 1911, collected by S.A. White (no. 359) .

The holotype, in addition to White’s label and Mathews and Rothschild type labels, bears a ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was the model for Mathews (1923b: pl. 486, central fig., opp. p. 384; text p. 386), where it is confirmed as the type of ethelae. The date of collection is there mis-cited as 20 August 1911.

White’s original label says Mount Dutton, west coast of Eyre Peninsula, but this cannot be correct. Mount Dutton, 27.50S, 135.43E (USBGN, 1957), is west of Lake Eyre, but the Whites were camped near Warunda, 34.28S, 135.41E (USBGN, 1957), Eyre Peninsula, between 23 August and 28 September 1911 ( White, 1912: 2–4).