Pteridophora alberti bürgersi Rothschild, 1931

Steinheimer, Frank D., 2005, The type specimens of Paradisaeidae, Cnemophilidae and Ptilonorhynchidae (Aves) in the Museum für Naturkunde of the Humboldt-University of Berlin, Zootaxa 1072 (1), pp. 1-25 : 12

Pteridophora alberti bürgersi Rothschild, 1931

Rothschild, L. W. (1931): On a collection of birds made by Mr. F. Shaw Mayer in the Weyland Mountains, Dutch New Guinea, in 1930. Novitates Zoologicae 36(2): 253 [250–276, pls. III– IV].

Now Pteridophora alberti Meyer, 1894 . See Cracraft 1992: 29–30, Frith and Beehler 1998: 307. Mayr 1962b: 197 and Dickinson 2003: 516 recognized the taxon as valid.

ARGUABLE PARATYPES: ZMB 2002.504 [new registration]. Adult female. Loc.: Schraderberg [Schrader Mts, middle reaches of the Sepik river, Papua New Guinea, 5°18' S, 144°24' E]. Date: 21 May 1913. Coll.: Bürgers No. 1722. Iris: light brown. Bill: black. Feet: grey. [Skin; data on field label]. ZMB 2002.505 [new registration]. Adult female. Loc.: Schraderberg. Date: 6 June 1913. Coll.: Bürgers No. 1964. Iris: light brown. Bill: black. Feet: grey. [Skin; data on field label] .

COMMENTS: Bürgers' New Guinea specimens all went directly to the Zoological Museum in Berlin (cf. Gebhardt 1964: 57), whence Lord Rothschild must have received the female holotype used in the original description. He referred to additional female specimens, which makes the two female specimens now remaining in Berlin arguable paratypes. The ICZN (1999: article 32.5.2.1.) demands the deletion of German 'Umlauts', so that today the epithet is spelled buergersi. These specimens were not mentioned in Meise's MS. The holotype is AMNH 678693 (female, 11 June 1913, Schraderberg, Coll.: Bürgers, no. 2064), this being the only specimen of the taxon from Bürgers' collection received by that institution.