Malurus splendens perthi 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 : 107

[ Malurus splendens perthi Mathews ]

Despite the fact that Mathews (1922e: 73) referred to this name as ‘‘ssp. nov.’’, perthi is a nomen novum for Malurus pectoralis Gould, 1833 and shares Gould’s type. Gould had proposed Malurus pectoralis (not Malurus pectoralis Stevens, 1826 ) as a name for his specimens from Swan River, Western Australia, but soon recognized that his birds were the same as Saxicola splendens Quoy and Gaimard, 1830 , a name proposed for birds from King George Sound. He then used Malurus splendens in his Birds of Australia ( Gould, 1848: text opp. pl. 21). Mathews merely provided a replacement name for Gould’s preoccupied, but unused, name.