Piezorhynchus nitidus wardelli 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 : 212-213

Piezorhynchus nitidus wardelli Mathews

Piezorhynchus nitidus wardelli Mathews, 1911e: 99 (Cooktown, North Queensland).

Now Myiagra alecto wardelli (Mathews, 1911) . See Schodde and Mason, 1999: 515–517.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 654556 , adult male collected at Cooktown , 15.29S, 145.15E (Times Atlas), Queensland, Australia, on 4 June 1900, by E. Olive (no. A78). From the Mathews Collection (no. 5888) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Mathews cited his catalog number of the holotype, described only the male, and mentioned only Cooktown, without giving a more extensive range. The holotype bears in addition to Olive’s field label, Mathews and Rothschild type labels. AMNH 654558 (Mathews no. 5887, Olive no. A79), collected 3 June 1900 at Cooktown, is a paratype. In his catalog, Mathews noted that he acquired specimens numbered 5800–5927 from [Herbert C.] Robinson, which he cataloged in October or November 1910. All of the localities listed in his catalog for these specimens are Olive collecting localities. Mathews’ (1942: 53) statement that he bought his Olive specimens at a sale in London indicates that Robinson had put the Olive specimens up for sale.

In October 1900, Robinson and Laverock (1900) published their report on Olive’s collections from northern Queensland and said ( Robinson and Laverock, 1900: 617) that his Cooktown specimens were collected ‘‘about the middle of last year’’ (in 1899). They ( Robinson and Laverock, 1900: 629) listed only two males of P. nitidus . One of these males was acquired by Rothschild and was never in the Mathews Collection. It is now AMNH 654557, male, collected 10 September 1899 and has no type standing. Perhaps the other one is Mathews’ type of ‘‘ Myiagra nitida robinsoni ’’ (see above under Myiagra cyanoleuca ). Both of Mathews’ specimens of P. n. wardelli were collected in June 1900 and were evidently received by Robinson and Laverock too late to have been included in their published account.