Spermophila fortipes Lawrence

LeCroy, Mary, 2012, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 10. Passeriformes: Emberizidae: Emberizinae, Catamblyrhynchinae, Cardinalinae, Thraupinae, And Tersininae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2012 (368), pp. 1-125 : 29

Spermophila fortipes Lawrence

Spermophila fortipes Lawrence, 1865b: 171 ( New Granada, line of Panama Railroad).

Now considered part of a population intermediate between Sporophila corvina corvina and S. c. hicksii. See Hellmayr, 1938: 191, Olson, 1981b, Stiles, 1996, and Dickinson, 2003: 792.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 41303 , adult male, collected in 1862 by James McLeannan, presumably near the Lion Hill station of the Panama railway, where he was the stationmaster. From the George N. Lawrence Collection.

COMMENTS: Lawrence had the single specimen that he considered fortipes . Hellmayr (1938: 191) considered fortipes a synonym of what he called Sporophila a. aurita . Olson (1981b) studied ‘‘aurita’’ specimens at length, considering them an intergrading population between S. americana corvina and S. a. hicksii. He examined Lawrence’s type of fortipes and it fell at HI 2 on his hybrid index of 0 (5 pure corvina ) to 5 (5 pure hicksii). Stiles (1996) agreed with Olson concerning the hybrid origin of the central Panamanian birds, but elevated corvina to full species status. Dickinson (2003: 792) accepted corvina as an allospecies of Sporophila and recognized both S. c. corvina and S. c. hicksii.

Siegel and Olson (2008) discussed this type locality and place it at ca. 09.13N, 79.54W.