Cisticola exilis exaggerata Mathews

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 : 45-46

Cisticola exilis exaggerata Mathews

Cisticola exilis exaggerata Mathews, 1922a: 373 (Southern Victoria, Tasmania (?), South Australia).

Now Cisticola exilis exilis ( Vigors and Horsfield, 1827) . See Lynes, 1930: 188–192, 631, and Schodde and Mason, 1999: 711–712.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 592961 , adult male, collected at Carrum , 38.05S, 145.08E ( USBGN, 1957b), Victoria, Australia, on 16 June 1912, by J.A. Ross for T.M. Tregellas.

From the Mathews Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, no type was mentioned nor did Mathews say how many specimens he had. AMNH 592961 bears a BMNH type label, but it was never in BMNH. The type label was filled in by Lynes: ‘‘Type of Cisticola exilis exaggerata Mathews. B. of Austr. IX p. 373. Marked by G.M.M. himself on 21 Sept. 1926. HL.’’ By listing this unique specimen as the type, Lynes (1930: 631) designated it the lectotype. Tregellas’ original label bears the following note on the reverse: ‘‘After much trouble, this specimen was obtained for me by J.A. Ross in the Carrum Swamp, where they inhabit the rushy bottom. Non-migrant. Scarce.’’ On the front of this label appears ‘‘Type of exaggerata ’’ in Mathews’ hand and the number ‘‘552’’, which is the number of Cisticola exilis in Mathews (1908a).

In the original description, the type locality was given as a range. No Mathews specimens from Tasmania came to AMNH. A single South Australian specimen had belonged to Mathews, AMNH 592960 (Mathews no. 11638) from Scheutze’s Landing, Murray River, collected on 10 January 1912. Mathews obtained the specimen from Ashby and cataloged it on 4 April 1912. It is a paralectotype.

There are four additional Victoria specimens of Cisticola exilis from the Mathews Collection, AMNH 592965–592968, all collected on 22 or 23 April 1908. AMNH 592967 has the usual Tregellas label and the other three have small field labels with data in what appears to be Tregellas’ hand, although two of them are said to have come from the Coles Collection. I did not find them in the Mathews catalog and do not know when they came into Mathews’ possession, but because the description of exaggerata was not published until 1922, they probably also should be considered paralectotypes.