Prionodura newtoniana fairfaxi Mathews

Lecroy, Mary, 2014, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, And Corvidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2014 (393), pp. 1-165 : 84-85

Prionodura newtoniana fairfaxi Mathews

Prionodura newtoniana fairfaxi Mathews, 1915a: 133 (Bartlefrere, Queensland).

Now Prionodura newtoniana De Vis, 1883 . See Mathews, 1926: 360–363; Hartert, 1929: 57; Mathews, 1930: 888; Mayr and Jennings, 1952: 4–5; Chisholm and Chaffer, 1956: 1–39; Gilliard, 1969: 318–325; Schodde and Mason, 1999: 626–627; Frith and Frith, 2004: 313–314; Christidis and Boles, 2008: 179–180; and Frith and Frith, 2009a: 396–397.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 679468 , adult male, collected on Mount Bartle Frere , 17.20S, 145.45E (Times Atlas), northern Queensland, Australia, on l 4 August 1909, by George Sharp. From the Mathews Collection (no. 5371) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews gave only the collecting locality of his type specimen in the original description. AMNH 679468 bears an unsigned original collector’s label, a Mathews Collection label marked ‘‘ Type’ ’ and ‘‘fairfaxi’’ in Mathews’ hand, and a Rothschild type label. The last two labels contain Mathews’ catalog number, although that was not cited in the original description. Mathews’ catalog gives Sharp as the collector. Hartert (1929a: 57) listed the single Mathews specimen collected on Mount Bartle Frere on 14 August 1909 as the type of fairfaxi, thereby designating it the lectotype. I have considered the following Mathews specimens collected on Mount Bartle Frere before 1915 to be paralectotypes although only a few of them have been found in his catalog: males, AMNH 679463 , 24 April 1909, AMNH 679464 , 18 April 1909, AMNH 679465 , 25 April 1909, AMNH 679471 (Mathews no. 5369), 16 August 1909, AMNH 679476 (5370), 14 November 1909, AMNH 679477 , 17 April 1909, AMNH 679478 , 24 April 1909, all collected by G. Sharp. AMNH 679472 , 21 April 1909, AMNH 679475 , 19 April 1909, collected by A. Madoch. AMNH 679474 (3678), 10 November 1896, AMNH 679482 (3682), 8 August 1896, no original label. AMNH 679481 (5817), male immature, 7 June 1900 ; AMNH 679484 (5820), female, 11 June 1900, collected by E. Olive. AMNH 679477 bears a Mathews ‘‘ Figured’ ’ label, indicating that it served as a model for Mathews (1926: pl. 589, opp. p. 360; text p. 360) where it is said to be a specimen of fairfaxi but is not said to be the type .

AMNH 216489 and 216499 were exchanged to AMNH from Rothschild in 1927 and were collected by Sharp in April 1909 ; they may be paralectotypes, but there is no Rothschild or Mathews label on them. Other specimens were never in the Mathews Collection. Steinheimer (2005: 5) reported a paralectotype and a possible paralectotype in ZMB .

Based on mitochondrial cytochrome- b studies, Kusmierski et al. (1997) included Prionodura newtoniana in the genus Amblyornis , and this was followed by Christidis and Boles (2008: 179–180), but most authors have retained Prionodura , pending confirmation.