Cinnyris habessinicus turkanae van Someren

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 : 145-146

Cinnyris habessinicus turkanae van Someren

Cinnyris habessinicus turkanae van Someren, 1920: 94 (Kohua [sic] River, Lake Rudolf).

Now Cinnyris habessinicus turkanae van Someren, 1920 . See Fry et al., 2000: 279–281, and Cheke and Mann, 2008a: 289–290.

SYNTYPE: AMNH 688424, adult male, collected on the Kobua (as on label) River, Lake Rudolf, Kenya, in March 1918. From the V.G. L. van Someren Collection (?) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, van Someren said that the type of turkanae was a male from his collection in the Rothschild Collection and was collected on the Kobua River, Lake Rudolf, in March 1918. Four males with the same data came to AMNH, three of them with Rothschild Collection labels printed ‘‘R. Meinertzhagen Collection, H.J.A. Turner leg.’’ and the fourth with no Rothschild Collection label. Apparently all four of the specimens were collected by Turner, as the handwriting and data on all four original collector’s labels are the same. It is this fourth specimen that bears a Rothschild type label, not written in the usual way by Hartert, but in handwriting that appears to be van Someren’s; also written on this label is ‘‘ van Someren Coll. ’’ in the same hand, but no printed ‘‘ van Someren Collection’’ label is attached. Hartert has added a reference to the description on the reverse of the type label.

I had considered this last specimen the holotype of turkanae until I discovered that FMNH also claimed a type ( Louette et al., 2002: 62). Correspondence with David Willard at FMNH concerning this specimen revealed that both the AMNH and FMNH specimens bear Rothschild type labels filled in by van Someren. Additionally , the FMNH specimen, FMNH 201849, has a printed van Someren Collection label with the same data but no original label. Both of these specimens are marked ‘‘Type’’ in red in the characteristic way ‘‘type’’ is written on other van Someren types.

When Hartert (1928a: 206) listed as the type of turkanae the specimen that is now AMNH 688424, he was relying on the presence of the Rothschild type label, its annotation that the specimen was from the van Someren Collection, and the statement in the original description that the type was in the Rothschild Collection, but there is no evidence other than van Someren’s claim on the type label that the AMNH specimen was from that collection. On the contrary, the female specimen, AMNH 688428, collected on the Kobua River, 21 January 1917, bears a printed ‘‘ van Someren Collection’’ label and a Rothschild Collection label printed ‘‘Ex. Coll. V.G. L. van Someren. ’’ I do not consider that Hartert’s listing unambiguously determined that AMNH 688424 was the type, especially as there is a second specimen bearing a Rothschild type label which does, in fact, bear a van Someren Collection label with the correct data. It seems that the only solution is to consider the two specimens syntypes.

This then brings into consideration the status of the remaining specimens of this form, of which van Someren (1920: 94) said: ‘‘A large series, in all plumages, was collected,’’ with the range given as ‘‘East Uganda and W. Rudolf to Suk country.’’ According to the Code (ICZN, 1999: 77, Art. 72.4.6), if an author nominates syntypes in the original description, the remaining specimens in the original series have no nomenclatural standing. However, in this case, van Someren was designating what he considered a holotype, and only subsequently was the description found to be inadequate for its determination. There are five AMNH specimens that were part of the original series, AMNH 688423, adult male, AMNH 688425, subadult male, AMNH 688426, immature male, AMNH 688427, female, from the Meinertzhagen Collection, collected by Turner in March 1918; and AMNH 688428, female, collected 21 January 1917, from the van Someren Collection, collector?. Of these, AMNH 688427 was exchanged to NMZB. There are also two in MRAC ( Louette et al., 2002: 62), and two in FMNH (David Willard, personal commun.); and doubtless, there are others in van Someren’s widely scattered collection. Under the intent of the Code (ICZN 1999: 77, Arts. 72.4.5 and 72.4.6), I think these additional specimens and others that may be found should be excluded from the type series.

The Kobua River flows into Lake Rudolf at Ferguson’s Gulf, ca. 03.30N, 35.55E ( Polhill, 1988).