Oreoctistes leucops Sharpe

LeCROY, M. A. R. Y., 2003, TYPE SPECIMENS OF BIRDS IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. PART 5. PASSERIFORMES: ALAUDIDAE, HIRUNDINIDAE, MOTACILLIDAE, CAMPEPHAGIDAE, PYCNONOTIDAE, IRENIDAE, LANIIDAE, VANGIDAE, BOMBYCILLIDAE, DULIDAE, CINCLIDAE, TROGLODYTIDAE, AND MIMIDAE, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 278 (278), pp. 1-156 : 81

Oreoctistes leucops Sharpe

Oreoctistes leucops Sharpe, 1888b: 388 (Kina Balu, Northern Borneo).

Now Pycnonotus flavescens leucops (Sharpe, 1888) . See Dickinson et al., 2002b: 125, 140.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 568938 , adult male, collected on Mt. Kinabalu , 8000 ft, 06°03′N, 116°32′E (Times Atlas), Sabah, Malaysia, on 7 February 1888, by John Whitehead (no. 1963). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: It was Whitehead’s habit to send ahead to Sharpe ‘‘a pair of most birds that I thought would be new’’ ( Whitehead, 1893: 185). In this taxon, Sharpe (1888b: 388) described syntypes, a male and a female (nos. ‘‘2063’’ and 1931). The male specimen has both no. 2063 and no. 1963 on the labels, but reference to other specimens of this species collected in February 1888 shows that 1963 is the correct number. Hartert (1922b: 371) designated the male the lectotype and correctly cited the collector’s number. The female, AMNH 568940 (no. 1931), collected 1 February 1888, is the paralectotype.

Later, Sharpe (in Sharpe and Whitehead, 1889b: 277) reported four specimens of this taxon collected by Whitehead and listed two as males and two as females. Actually, three specimens are labeled as males and one as a female. The two specimens additional to the two cited in the original description, AMNH 568939 (Whitehead no. 2048), male, 23 February 1888, and AMNH 265495 (Whitehead no. 1953), male, 5 February 1888, have no standing as types. This latter specimen had been exchanged to AMNH from the Rothschild Collection prior to that collection coming to AMNH. It had originally been marked ‘‘Type RBS’’ and then crossed out in the same ink. There seems to be no doubt that the above lectotype, marked ‘‘Type RBS’’, is the one that Sharpe had in hand when he described the taxon.

The generic name Oreoctistes was also proposed by Sharpe (1888b: 388) at the same time.