Myzomela splendida Tristram, 1879

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 : 66

Myzomela splendida Tristram

Myzomela splendida Tristram, 1879: 191 (Tanna) .

Now Myzomela cardinalis cardinalis (Gmelin, 1788) . See Hartert, 1919a: 172–173, Bregulla, 1992: 247–249, and Higgins et al., 2008: 645– 646.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 692886, adult male, AMNH 692887, adult male, collected at Port Resolution, 19.32S, 169.29E (USBGN, 1974c), Tanna Island, Vanuatu (5 New Hebrides), in July 1878, by E.L. Layard. From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Tristram did not designate a type in the original description or say how many specimens he had; therefore, all of Layard’s July 1878 specimens from Tanna are syntypes. AMNH 692886 was not marked ‘‘Type’’ and was not listed as a ‘‘Cotype’’ by Hartert (1919a: 173), perhaps either because it was not marked ‘‘Type’’ or because the Rothschild Collection label was dated 1879 in error; the date on the original label is ‘‘ July 1878.’’ AMNH 692887 was marked ‘‘Type’’ by Tristram(?) and was considered a ‘‘cotype’’ (5 syntype) by Hartert (1919a: 173). However, both were collected in July 1878 at Port Resolution and are syntypes. There are, additionally, two Layard syntypes in LIVCM ( Wagstaffe, 1978: 22), one in BMNH ( Warren and Harrison, 1971: 523), one in MSNM ( Leonardi et al., 1995: 282), and one in RMNH ( Dekker and Quaisser, 2006: 30).