Pachycephala soror remota Mayr and Van Deusen

Pachycephalidae, Aegithalidae, Remizidae, Paridae, Sittidae, Neosittidae, Certhiidae, Rhabdornithidae, Climacteridae, Dicaeidae, Pardalotidae, Nectariniidae, And & Lecroy, Mary, 2010, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 8. Passeriformes:, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2010 (333), pp. 1-178 : 17-18

Pachycephala soror remota Mayr and Van Deusen

Pachycephala soror remota Mayr and Van Deusen, 1956: 4 (‘‘Top Camp,’’ east slopes of Goodenough Island, D’Entrecasteaux Group, Territory of Papua).

Now Pachycephala soror remota Mayr and Van Deusen, 1956 . See Coates, 1990: 208–209, and Boles, 2007: 416.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 388847 , adult male, collected at the ‘‘ Top Camp ,’’ east slopes, 1600 m, Goodenough Island , 09.20S, 150.15E (PNG, 1984), D’Entrecasteaux Archipelago , Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, on 11 October 1953, by Hobart M. Van Deusen , on the Fourth Archbold Expedition to New Guinea.

COMMENTS: The AMNH number of the holotype was given in the original description. Paratype: AMNH 658278, immature male, collected in the mountains of Goodenough Island, by A.S. Meek, in 1913. Dickinson (2003: 476) synonymized remota with bartoni of southeastern New Guinea, probably based on Galbraith (1956: 196). However, Galbraith would not have seen the description of remota, also published in 1956. This is undoubtedly an uncommon bird of the highest mountain on Goodenough. The single adult was collected at 1600 m. We ( LeCroy and Peckover, 2000: 42) saw it only once when we were camped at 1060 m in August 1988. Given the considerably larger size of the two Goodenough specimens compared to specimens of bartoni from southeastern New Guinea ( Mayr and Van Deusen, 1956: 4 , and substantiated by my measurements), I believe the subspecies should be recognized, contra Dickinson (2003: 476). Further collecting is encouraged.

Rothschild and Hartert (1914a) reported on Meek’s collection from Goodenough Island. See Brass (1956) for a summary of the Fourth Archbold Expedition.