Ethelornis normantoni 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 : 179-180

Ethelornis normantoni Mathews

Ethelornis normantoni Mathews, 1920a: 169 (Kimberley (5 Normanton), Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland).

Now Gerygone levigaster levigaster Gould, 1843 . See Meise, 1931: 363, Ford, 1981a, Mayr, 1986b: 455, and Schodde and Mason, 1999: 183–184.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 606952 , adult female, collected at Karumba (5 Kimberley, as on label), 17.29S, 140.51E ( Storr, 1984: 184), Queensland, Australia, in July 1884, by Kendall Broadbent. From the Mathews Collection (no. 18454) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews (1920a: 169) named this form thus: ‘‘If the bird described on p. 167 be not mastersi it can be called Ethelornis normantoni name nov.’’ On p. 167 he described an adult female, said to be the figured specimen, ‘‘Collected at Kimberley (5 Normanton), Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, in July 1884.’’ The above specimen is the single such specimen in the Mathews Collection, which, according to his catalog, Mathews obtained from QM in 1914. It bears a label, the front of which gives the collecting locality as ‘‘Kimberley’’; on the reverse, in a hand unknown, is written ‘‘Collected by K. Broadbent at Normanton Q’land’’. A second label is the Rothschild Collection label printed ‘‘Ex. coll. G.M. Mathews’’ and Mathews’ catalog number, apparently written by Meise, whose note on the reverse reads: ‘‘ Typus v. normantoni Math. Birds Austr. v. 8 p. 169 5 Ger. fusca mastersi, Nov. Zool. 36, p. 363’’. This latter is a reference to Meise’s monograph on Gerygone . A third label is a yellow ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in Mathews (1920a: pl. 384, top fig., opp. p. 149, text pp. 167–169). The fourth label is an AMNH type label written by Mayr.

As he did in this case, Mathews sometimes used the term ‘‘name nov.’’ to indicate a new taxon rather than a nomen novum for an already existing but preoccupied name. Mayr (1986b: 455) considered it a nomen novum for Pseudogerygone mastersi Sharpe , which was itself a nomen novum for Gerygone simplex Masters , in which case the type would remain that of Gerygone simplex (now a synonym of G. levigaster . This was also the interpretation of Longmore (1991: 15–16). However, because Mathews gave a description and designated a type, it would seem to me to be a valid description. Meise (1931: 363) also referred to the type of normantoni in the Rothschild Collection.

Mathews (1920a: 169) considered his other specimens from ‘‘Normanton’’, collected by Kemp, to represent Gerygone mastersi (5 Gerygone levigaster levigaster ). But because of the complicated juxtaposition of populations of Gerygone fusca and Gerygone levigaster in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria and the recent reinterpretation of relationships among these populations, it seemed important to reexamine the type of normantoni carefully.

The syntypes of Gerygone simplex Masters , a male and a female, were collected in 1875 on the cruise of the Chevert ( Macleay, 1876), type locality given as the Gulf of Carpentaria, and are now in AM ( Longmore, 1991: 16). Broadbent was not a member of this expedition ( Macleay, 1876: 36–40) but specimens were apparently obtained from him. Masters’ (1876: 44–64) article in which he reported on the specimens collected on the cruise ‘‘during the months of June, July, August, and September of this year’’ and in which he named simplex (p. 52) was communicated to the Linnean Society of New South Wales on 27 December 1875 and published in the first part of Volume 1 of the Proceedings in 1876 (February 1876, according to Mathews, 1930: 464).

Mathews’ type of normantoni was obtained by him from the QM in 1914. It was apparently part of a later Broadbent collection reported on by De Vis (1884): ‘‘In July last [1884] Mr. K. Broadbent, during his progress in the north, paid a visit to Kimberley, at the mouth of the Norman River: a locality which, some years ago, he examined for novelties with success.’’ This has usually been interpreted as Normanton, but Karumba is correct, as listed by Longmore (1991: 15) for the syntypes of Gerygone simplex . Older maps show Kimberley as an alternate name for Karumba. According to De Vis (1884), this was a period of drought (perhaps allowing an invasion of the mangrove areas by species usually found in more inland localities?).

As shown by Schodde and Mason (1999: 185), mungi and exsul, the central western and eastern subspecies of fusca , intergrade in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. The range of G. l. levigaster , the mangrove-inhabiting species, abuts on this area ( Schodde and Mason, 1999: 183). The type of normantoni has the base of the outermost rectrices the dull grayish tan of G. levigaster , not the clear white of G. fusca , thus confirming it as a specimen of the coastal mangrove-inhabiting species.