Gerygone rosseliana onerosa Hartert

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 : 174

Gerygone rosseliana onerosa Hartert

Gerygone rosseliana onerosa Hartert, 1899b: 209 (St. Aignan Island).

Now Gerygone magnirostris onerosa Hartert, 1899 . See Meise, 1931: 336, Mayr, 1986b: 451, and Coates, 1990: 117.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 606581 , adult male, collected on Misima (5 St. Aignan) Island,

10.40S, 152.45E ( USBGN, 1943), Louisiade Archipelago, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, on 5 September 1897, by Albert S. Meek (no. 964). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Hartert mentioned only a single male, the type, from Misima collected on 5 September 1897. However, there are two males in the Rothschild Collection, both collected on 5 September. The wing measurement of 58 mm agrees with that of AMNH 606581 , which also bears the Rothschild type label and is marked ‘‘The Type’’ by Hartert. Hartert (1920: 494) gave Meek’s field number when he listed this type. The second male, AMNH 606582 , collected on the same date and with wing measuring 56 mm, is a paratype. There are two additional paratypes: AMNH 606582 , marked ‘‘Male’’ by Meek, but considered a female by Hartert because it is paler and smaller than the males ; and AMNH 606583 , female, both collected on 9 August 1897 .

Because Meek had collectors on both Misima and nearby Kimuta Island during the period 5–11 September 1897, a question arose concerning the type locality of onerosa, as all of his specimens from both islands were labeled ‘‘St. Aignan’’. However, Meek had also collected onerosa in August on Misima, and Hannibal Hamlin later collected it on Misima but not on the smaller islands nearby that he visited. It has not been reported from Kimuta. LeCroy and Peckover (1998: 231) recommended retaining Misima as the type locality of this form.