Bathmocercus vulpinus Reichenow

LeCroy, M., 2008, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History. Part 7. Passeriformes: Sylviidae, Muscicapidae, Platysteiridae, Maluridae, Acanthizidae, Monarchidae, Rhipiduridae, And Petroicidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 313 (1), pp. 1-287 : 13-14

Bathmocercus vulpinus Reichenow

Bathmocercus vulpinus Reichenow, 1895: 160 (Aruwimi Flum. (Africa occidentalis)).

Now Bathmocercus rufus vulpinus Reichenow, 1895 . See Urban et al., 1997: 82–83.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 588911 , unsexed, collected on the Aruwimi River, Congo (Kinshasa), by William Bonny on the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, the type was said to be in the Rothschild Collection. The description is of the male, and the above specimen is apparently the only one in male plumage collected by Bonny. It is marked ‘‘Type’’ and bears a Rothschild type label. The female was described as a separate species (see below).

Bonny was a member of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition led by H.M. Stanley. The Aruwimi River camp at Yambuya was occupied by part of the expedition, including Bonny, from 15 June 1887 to 14 February 1888 (see Jameson, 1890), and his specimens were probably collected during that time. Yambuya is at 01.17N, 24.34E (Times Atlas).

The genus Bathmocercus was also described in the same paper ( Reichenow, 1895: 159).