Magnamytis alligator 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 : 120-121

Magnamytis alligator Mathews

Magnamytis alligator Mathews, 1923a: 212 (South Alligator River, Northern Territory).

Now Amytornis woodwardi Hartert, 1905 . See Schodde, 1982: 169, and Schodde and Mason, 1999: 109.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 598134 , adult female, collected in the granite ranges, [10 mi east of the] South Alligator River , Northern Territory, Australia, on 9 August 1903, by J.T. Tunney (no. 898). From the Mathews Collection (8522) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Mathews (1923a: 212) said: ‘‘[ Magnamytis woodwardi ] does not appear to have since been met with, as the bird determined as A. woodwardi from the eastern part of the Northern Territory proves to be a distinct species, just treated of as M. dorotheae , q.v. In this latter species the sexes are alike. I therefore designate Dr. Hartert’s type of Amytornis woodwardi as equal to the bird I have described as a male; and name the bird I have described as a female above as MAGNAMYTIS ALLIGATOR nomen nov.’’ I interpret this to mean that Mathews thought that because male and female M. dorotheae were alike, then male and female woodwardi must also be; and because the female from the South Alligator River was different from the male, it was ipso facto a different species, and thus needed to be named! The female that Mathews (1923a: pl. 473, left fig., opp. p. 211, text p. 212) described, figured, and cited as ‘‘type’’ was said to have been collected on the South Alligator River on 9 August 1903. It is the only specimen from the Mathews Collection that bears those data. It also bears the Mathews yellow ‘‘Figured’’ label. I was able to find this specimen in the Mathews catalog (no. 8522), cataloged on 24 April 1911. Despite the fact that he listed it as having been obtained from the Rothschild Collection, he undoubtedly got it as well as the following specimen from WAM, because (1) it bears the WAM number 7573, a number given it after the WAM share of Tunney’s collection was returned by Hartert and (2) the WAM catalog records that it was sent to Mathews (R. Johnstone, personal commun.). It no longer bears Tunney’s original field label. This specimen is also a paratype of Amytornis woodwardi Hartert (above).

A second specimen from the Mathews Collection, AMNH 598137, was collected on 10 August 1903, 10 mi east of the South Alligator River, 85 mi from the coast in the granite ranges, by J.T. Tunney (no. 904). It was also cataloged by Mathews (no. 8521) on 24 April 1911 and was noted as having been obtained from the ‘‘Perth Museum’’ (5 WAM), WAM number 7575. It is noted in the WAM catalog as sent to Mathews in 1910 (R. Johnstone, personal commun). It was mistakenly labeled a female by Tunney but was entered in Mathews’ catalog as a male. Because it has the light belly color that he attributed to Amytornis woodwardi , he would have considered it that species. Thus, it is not a paratype of M. alligator . This specimen also bears a yellow ‘‘Figured’’ label and was, in fact, the model for Mathews (1923a: pl. 473, right fig., opp. p. 211, text p. 211)—the bird he ‘‘described as a male’’ (on text p. 211) and equated with Hartert’s woodwardi , and it is also a paratype of that species (see above).

Tunney also labeled this holotype as coming from the ‘‘granite ranges’’. Storr (1966: 64) discussed Tunney’s itinerary and called attention to conflicting label information concerning exactly where Tunney was on 9 August 1903. Schodde and Mason (1975: 12–13, quoted above) found that he was probably in the Barramundie Creek catchment, where the sandstone hills are rounded by erosion and have the appearance of granite ranges.