Nesomimus bauri Ridgway

LeCroy, M., 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,, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2003 (278), pp. 1-156 : 128

Nesomimus bauri Ridgway

Nesomimus bauri Ridgway, 1894: 357 (Tower Island).

Now Nesomimus trifasciatus bauri Ridgway, 1894 . See

Davis and Miller, 1960: 448.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 504397 , unsexed, collected on Isla Genovesa (= Tower Island), 00°20′N, 89°58′W ( Paynter, 1993: 211), Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, on 2 September 1891, by Dr. G. A. Baur (no. 695). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Ridgway (1894: 357–358) gave the collecting date as 2 September 1891 for his three specimens from Tower Island in Dr. Baur’s Collection. He did not give the sex of the type nor the collector’s number, although he had written it on the USNM type label attached to the above specimen. Rothschild and Hartert (1899: 146) did not state how many Baur specimens they had. Four Baur specimens from Tower Island came to AMNH, three of them collected on 2 September 1891. These three specimens would have been syntypes. Hartert (1920: 478), citing Baur’s field number, designated the above specimen the lectotype. The paralectotypes are AMNH 504398, male, and AMNH 504411, female. AMNH 504010 is unsexed and undated. All four specimens had been in spirits.

Brewer and MacKay (2001: 222) considered bauri a subspecies of N. parvulus .

Harporhynchus curvirostris var. palmeri (Ridgway MS) Coues

Harporhynchus curvirostris var. palmeri (Ridgway MS) Coues, 1872: 351 (Tucson, Arizona).

Now Toxostoma curvirostre palmeri (Coues (ex Ridgway MS), 1872). See Phillips, 1986: 190, Tweit, 1996: 3, and Brewer and MacKay, 2001: 237.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 85850 , unsexed adult, collected at Tucson, Arizona, by Lt. Charles Bendire, in 1872. From the George B. Sennett Collection (no. 2541).

COMMENTS: In the original description, Coues stated that this name was from a Ridgway manuscript and that it was ‘‘Described from 61589, Mus. Smiths. Inst., Tucson, Arizona, Bendire.’’ Hellmayr (1934: 299) stated that the type was in the United States National Museum, but did not indicate that he had seen it. Deignan (1961: 410– 413) did not mention it. This type seems to be another example of specimen exchange between the Smithsonian Institution and George B. Sennett (see above under Thryothorus ludovicianus lomitensis ). A study of the five labels attached to this specimen indicates that it was catalogd as no. 61589 in the Smithsonian Institution (although the number 61590 appears on one tag and is crossed out). The two Smithsonian Institution labels give the name as ‘‘ Harporhynchus curvirostris var. palmeri Ridgway’’ and one, while printed with the Smithsonian Institution name, is also printed: ‘‘Explorations in Dakota/Dr. Elliott Coues, U.S.A. ’’. This has been changed, in a hand unknown, to: ‘‘Explorations in Arizona /Lt. C. Bendire’’ and is noted on the reverse: ‘‘Presented by Coues to S.I.’’ It does not bear a Smithsonian Institution type label and was apparently given to or exchanged with Sennett without its type status having been recognized. It then came to AMNH with the Sennett Collection in 1904. The statement on the AMNH type label, ‘‘fide C.W. Richmond, Jan. 1921 ’’, indicates that Richmond recognized it as the type of palmeri at that time. Storrs Olson (personal commun.) found that this specimen was one of a lot of 12 collected [by] and received from Lt. Bendire and entered in the catalog on 20 June 1872. It was originally entered on that date as Harporhynchus palmeri , even though Coues’s description (a mere footnote) was not published until October. As Coues indicates that it was a Ridgway MS name, the MS must have been in existence before 20 June 1872. The catalog indicates that the specimen went to Sennett on 27 Aug 1879. The entry is now underlined in red and annotated in pencil ‘‘ Type! Now in Am. Mus.’’ These were obviously added after the horse got out of the barn. 61590 is a ground dove [ Columbina passerina ] and has nothing to do with the thrasher. Nor is there any indication that the specimen was ‘‘Presented by Coues to S.I.’’

Two additional numbers appear on this specimen: ‘‘No. 259?’’ and ‘‘1708’’. These numbers do not correspond to the numbers on any of Sennett’s specimen lists in the Department of Ornithology Archives. The specimen is a mummy.

Recent DNA studies by Zink et al. (1999, 2000) indicated that the ‘‘Palmeri group’’ of subspecies merit recognition as a full species, but they recomended further studies before formal taxonomic recognition.