Pardalotus queenslandicus Mathews

Pachycephalidae, Aegithalidae, Remizidae, Paridae, Sittidae, Neosittidae, Certhiidae, Rhabdornithidae, Climacteridae, Dicaeidae, Pardalotidae, Nectariniidae, And & Lecroy, Mary, 2010, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 8. Passeriformes:, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2010 (333), pp. 1-178 : 123-124

Pardalotus queenslandicus Mathews

Pardalotus queenslandicus Mathews, 1923b: 197 (Gracemere, Queensland).

Now Pardalotus striatus substriatus X P. s. melanocephalus . See Schodde and Mason, 1999: 128–131, and Woinarski, 2008: 401.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 699022 , female, collected in central east Queensland, Australia, on 17 May 1881, by Carl Lumholtz. From the Mathews Collection (no. 10296) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Apparently as an afterthought, Mathews (1923b: 197) decided to name P. queenslandicus and entered the name in the description of one of his figured birds in ‘‘Birds of Australia.’’ The above specimen bears a ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in Mathews (1923b: pl. 508, right lower figure, opp. p. 195, text pp. 197, 209). I consider it the holotype of queenslandicus . In addition to the ‘‘Figured’’ label, it has a plain label giving the sex as female, the locality as Gracemere, and the date as 17 May 1881. Also attached is Lumholtz’s label with his identification and ‘‘ Queensland,’’ a Rothschild Collection label printed ‘‘Ex. coll. G.M. Mathews,’’ an AMNH label stamped ‘‘Rothschild Collection’’ and marked ‘‘Type of queenslandicus Mathews’’ by Mayr, and an AMNH type label.

Lumholtz (1889: 17) had his base at Gracemere, a cattle station of the Messrs. Archer, situated 7 miles from Rockhampton. Lumholtz (1889: 27, 29) said: ‘‘My excursions extended not only to the immediate vicinity of Gracemere, but I made journeys of investigation to regions 200 miles away … At Peak Downs [22.56S, 148.05E, USBGN, 1957], situated about 200 miles west of Rockhampton, I received the first impression of genuine native Australian scenery.’’ It was not until July 1881 that Lumholtz prepared to leave on his long trip into western Queensland.

Hindwood and Mayr (1946: 55–56) noted that the type of queenslandicus was molting from immature into adult plumage and considered it indistinguishable from what they called Pardalotus ornatus , the characteristic feature of which they considered to be its variability. Schodde and Mason (1999: 128), in a map summarizing their more recent analysis, show a complicated pattern of intergradation among the three continental subspecies of P. striatus that they recognize. After comparison of the type of queenslandicus with specimens of all three subspecies in AMNH, it seems to me that it is an intergrade between substriatus and melanocephalus ; it has the solid black crown and striped occiput that such an intergrade would exhibit.

Two other specimens with localities given as Rockhampton (5 Gracemere) appear to be pure melanocephalus . One of them was collected on 23 May 1881. This might imply that Lumholtz collected the holotype of queenslandicus while he was still within the zone of intergradation west of Rockhampton in central east Queensland, and then moved east in mid to late May to collect the other specimens closer to Gracemere, in an area where pure melanocephalus occurred. Or he may have relied on others to collect for him in the vicinity of Gracemere while he was away.