Anthochaera chrysoptera albani Mathews

Mary, 2011, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 9. Passeriformes: Zosteropidae And Meliphagidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (348), pp. 1-193 : 166

Anthochaera chrysoptera albani Mathews

Anthochaera chrysoptera albani Mathews, 1923b: 39 (Albany, South-west Australia).

Now Anthochaera lunulata Gould, 1838 . See Salomonsen, 1967: 446, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 301–302; Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185– 191; and Higgins et al., 2008: 621–622.

? SYNTYPE: AMNH 696457, juvenile male, collected at Albany, 35.02S, 117.53E (USBGN, 1957), Western Australia, Australia, on 4 February 1905, by Thomas Carter. From the Mathews Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews (1923b: 39), in describing this subspecies, said that the type, from Albany, was smaller, had a smaller bill and was paler than A. c. lunulata . The only Mathews specimen from Albany at AMNH is AMNH 696457, a juvenile male collected by Thomas Carter on 4 February 1905 and used by Mathews (1925a: 81) for the description of the immature male, with no indication of subspecies. The Rothschild label, printed ‘‘Ex. Coll. G.M. Mathews,’’ is marked ‘‘descr.’’ on the reverse in Mathews’ hand, but this surely refers to the description of the immature. It hardly seems credible that Mathews would base the name albani on a specimen that he had used for the description of the immature even though the specimen is smaller, has a smaller bill, and is paler than most specimens of lunulata . Nevertheless, his collection was complete by 1923 and this specimen was known to him even if his collection was in the Rothschild Collection by that time. If Mathews based his description on statements in the literature, as he did for many of the new names he introduced in 1923, I have not found such reference.

In his list of subspecies of chrysoptera, Mathews (1925a: 86) did not record albani, only saying that ‘‘many more’’ subspecies must be distinguished, ‘‘there being three or four in Western Australia alone, Albany specimens being smaller with smaller bills and paler coloration thoroughout.’’ But in the literature section, he ( Mathews, 1925a: 79) listed the reference to the description of albani! I can only imagine that the text for this part of Birds of Australia had already been completed when Mathews (1923b: 39) decided to name albani and that he remembered to add the reference to his description but forgot to add albani to the list of subspecies.