Corvus marianae mellori 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 : 131

Corvus marianae mellori Mathews

Corvus marianae mellori Mathews, 1912a: 443 (South Australia).

Now Corvus mellori Mathews, 1912 . See Mathews, 1926: 390–402; Hartert, 1929a: 53; Mathews, 1930: 894–895; Blake and Vaurie, 1962: 276– 277; Rowley, 1967; 1970: 50–53; Schodde and Mason, 1999: 611; and dos Anjos, 2009: 634.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 674602 , male, collected on Angas Plains , 35.21S, 139.00E ( USBGN, 1957), South Australia, Australia, on 31 December 1901, by Edwin Ashby (no. 290). From the Mathews Collection (3724, not 5724) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Mathews said only that his type was from South Australia, gave inclusive wing measurements, 326–330 mm, without stating the sex, and noted that the feather bases were gray. He also gave his catalog number of the holotype as 5724, but this was a typographical error, the correct number being 3724. (The entry at no. 5724 is a specimen of Neochmia phaeton .) Hartert (1929a: 53) did not catch this error in Mathews’ catalog number.

Rowley (1967) elevated this form to full species status and gave measurements of the holotype: wing 326 mm, bill 54 mm, tarsus 62 mm. Schodde and Mason (1999: 611) and dos Anjos (2009: 634) accepted species status for C. mellori .

Corvus marianae halmaturinus is a synonym of mellori (see below) and was described on the same page. Rowley (1970: 50) served as first revisor when he chose mellori to have priority over halmaturinus.

[A second specimen of mellori, AMNH 674489, cataloged by Mathews as no. 3723, ‘‘ Corvus coronoides ,’’ also a male, was collected on 30 December 1901 on Angas Plains. This specimen was identified in the AMNH catalog as Corvus bennetti but is a raven with gray feather bases. It was collected by Edwin Ashby and identified as Corvus coronoides by him. I measure the wing as 318 mm, bill 50 mm, tarsus, 57 mm, which fall within the measurements given by Rowley (1970: 51) for males of mellori from inland New South Wales and South Australia. This topotype is retained with the types.]