Meliphaga penicillata interioris Salomonsen

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 : 95-96

Meliphaga penicillata interioris Salomonsen

Meliphaga penicillata interioris Salomonsen, 1966a: 6 (Ward River, south of Charleville, southwestern Queensland, Australia).

Now considered intergradient between Lichenostomus p. penicillatus and L. p. leilavalensis. See Schodde and Mason, 1999: 255–256, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185–191, and Higgins et al., 2008: 608–609.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 343828 , adult male, collected on the Ward River , south of Charleville, 26.25S, 146.13E (Times Atlas), Queensland, Australia, on 1 March 1940, by Lindsay Macmillan.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Salomonsen gave the AMNH number of the holotype and the range of interioris as ‘‘northwestern New South Wales, northward to south-central Queensland,’’ with measurements for one female and at least two males. There are only three specimens among those in AMNH that were collected within that range, and, in fact, Salomonsen (1967: 382) later further restricted the range to between Bourke , New South Wales, and Charleville , Queensland. The two paratypes are: AMNH 695557 , adult male, collected at Bourke in June 1910, by P. Schraeder (Mathews no. 6085) ; AMNH 343836 , adult female, collected on the Ward River, south of Charleville , on 2 March 1940, by Macmillan. Salomonsen (1966a: 6) gave the wing length of the males as 83–85 mm, of the female as 76. My measurements are: male paratype, 84 mm ; holotype, 86; female, 76. I believe that he based his description on these three specimens.

Lindsay Macmillan’s collection in Queensland in 1940 was made using Whitney South Sea Expedition funds remaining from the sale of the expedition vessel France.