Artamus cinereus inkermani Keast, 1958

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 : 67

Artamus cinereus inkermani Keast

Artamus cinereus inkermani Keast, 1958: 214 (Inkerman) .

Now Artamus cinereus inkermani Keast, 1958 . See Mayr, 1962b: 165; Ford, 1978; Schodde and Mason, 1999: 565–567; Dickinson, 2003: 464; and Rowley and Russell, 2009b: 307.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 665009 , adult male, collected at Inkerman Station , 19.45S, 147.29E ( USBGN, 1957), Queensland, Australia, on 16 April 1907, by Wilfred Stalker (no. 302). From the Mathews Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Keast gave the AMNH number of the holotype and said that he based the name on five AMNH specimens from Inkerman. Ingram (1908b: 471) listed four specimens of A. cinereus (as A. hypoleucus , with albiventris as a synonym) from Inkerman, one of which, AMNH 665011, is an immature male and was not mentioned by Keast. The other two Ingram specimens in addition to the holotype are considered paratypes of inkermani: AMNH 665010, male, 15 March 1907, AMNH 665012, female, 5 March 1907, both collected by Wilfred Stalker. There are two further AMNH specimens that I consider paratypes of inkermani: AMNH 461373, male, AMNH 461375, female, collected 20 miles south of Inkerman, on 4 August 1954, by J.L.C. Lawson. These specimens were cataloged in 1954 or 1955 and would have been available to Keast. A third specimen, AMNH 461374, female, collected at Marlborough, Queensland, on 10 August 1954, by Lawson is not considered a paratype, as that locality is not mentioned by Keast.

When these specimens were studied by Ford (1978: 106), he considered normani and inkermani to be synonyms of albiventris, stating that normani showed signs of introgression. But he did not state the same for inkermani, only repeating Keast’s statement that they were paler on the breast and abdomen. In his table 1 and figure 1 , Ford (1978: 108–109) did not indicate evidence of introgression. Schodde and Mason (1999: 565–567) accepted normani as representing A. cinereus on the Cape York Peninsula. For the white bellied forms farther south in Queensland, they considered hypoleucus and albiventris, which share type material, to be unidentifiable, and they renamed and retypified the southern form as Artamus cinereus dealbatus , but did not mention inkermani. The above specimens all are whitish on the abdomen and have white vents and undertail coverts. Further comparisons are needed before a decision can be made about the validity of inkermani, but AMNH lacks comparative material of dealbatus.

Figures

Fig. 1. Holotype of Corvus corax canariensis Hartert and Kleinschmidt, 1901, showing extensive damage to plumage due to chemical or insect damage.