Dasyornis longirostris mastersi 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 : 122-123

Dasyornis longirostris mastersi Mathews

Dasyornis longirostris mastersi Mathews, 1923a: 154 , 156 (King George’s Sound in Western Australia).

Now Dasyornis longirostris Gould, 1841 . See Schodde and Mason, 1999: 135–136.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 598146 , unsexed, [ West Australia, Australia, 17 August 1883, W. Kershaw, but see below]. From the Mathews Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews (1923a: 154) described this form as follows: ‘‘Adult. Total length 170 mm; culmen 12, wing 65, tail 77, tarsus 24. Figured. Collected at King George’s Sound in Western Australia on the 17th of August, 1883, and is Sphenura longirostris mastersi .’’ AMNH 598146 bears the yellow Mathews ‘‘Figured’’ label, which is marked ‘‘Type of mastersi Mathews’’ in what appears to be Mathews’ hand, and my measurements of the specimen are exactly the same as those of Mathews except that I measure the tail as 78 mm. Mathews (1923a: 156) said ‘‘The bird figured and described can be called Dasyornis longirostris mastersi subsp. nov. ’’ As only one specimen was figured ( Mathews, 1923a: pl. 466, top, opp. p. 151), and the label data match, this specimen is the holotype. The specimen bears two labels that give the locality as West Australia, one of which is from the MV and gives the supposed collector’s name and the date as recorded above. The second has only ‘‘ Dasyornis Longirostris ’’ and ‘‘W. Australia’’. The Rothschild Museum label is stamped ‘‘Ex coll. G.M. Mathews’’ and is also marked ‘‘Type’’. I was unable to find this specimen listed in the Mathews catalog.

Some light is thrown on the provenance of this specimen by Whittell (1954: 397): ‘‘From 1856 to 1891 [W. Kershaw was] an assistant in the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne. On August 17, 1883 the Museum purchased from him a collection of Western Australian birds, which he had probably obtained from William Webb.’’ Therefore, Kershaw’s name and the date on the MV label refer to the purchase of this collection. In writing of William Webb, Whittell (1954: 744–745) noted that he sent specimens of birds to Sir William Macleay from King George Sound. Therefore, it is likely that the above holotype was collected by Webb at King George Sound, date unknown.

Mathews (1913a: 230) had changed the type locality of Gould’s Dasyornis longirostris from Swan River, West Australia, to King George’s Sound on the basis of Stone and Mathews (1913: 166). Later, Mathews (1923a: 155) decided that Stone had been incorrect in assuming that ANSP specimens labeled ‘‘King George’s Sound’’ were Gould types and reverted to ‘‘Swan River’’ as the type locality of Gould’s name. Meyer de Schauensee (1957: 204–205) discussed the questionable Gould specimens in ANSP.

Mathews (1923a: 154, 156) named King George Sound birds as Dasyornis longirostris mastersi , based on his specimen from Western Australia. Whether he knew that it was probably collected by Webb at King George Sound is not known, but he wrote ( Mathews, 1923a: 155): ‘‘I cannot trace any recent record, but Masters apparently found it, and its nest and eggs, at King George’s Sound …’’. George Masters, who was Curator and Collector at the AM, sent 10 specimens of Dasyornis longirostris to Sydney from King George Sound between September 1868 and April 1869 ( Whittell, 1954: 786). Thus, Mathews’ naming of mastersi honored Masters for his collection of this form even though he did not collect Mathews’ specimen.

This specimen had not previously been included in the AMNH type collection.