Myzomela obscura apsleyi Mathews

Mary, 2011, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 9. Passeriformes: Zosteropidae And Meliphagidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (348), pp. 1-193 : 60

Myzomela obscura apsleyi Mathews

Myzomela obscura apsleyi Mathews, 1912b: 48 (Melville Island, Northern Territory).

Now Myzomela obscura obscura Gould, 1843 . See Salomonsen, 1967: 352, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 337–338, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185– 191, and Higgins et al., 2008: 638–639.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 692487 , adult male, collected at Coopers Camp , Apsley Strait, Melville Island, Northern Territory, Australia, on 17 October 1911, by J.P. Rogers (no. 2200). From the Mathews Collection (no. 10665) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews cited his catalog number of the holotype in the original description and gave the range of the form as ‘‘Melville Island.’’ The holotype bears, in addition to Rogers’ original label and Mathews and Rothschild type labels, a ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in Mathews (1924: pl. 317, opp. p. 330, text p. 331) where it is confirmed as the type of apsleyi. Mathews (1912b: 26) noted that he had received from Rogers two shipments of birds from Melville Island; these comprised specimens collected at Coopers Camp in October– December 1911. Paratypes are: males, AMNH 692484 (Mathews no. 11604), AMNH 692488 (11606), AMNH 692489 (11605), AMNH 692490 (10667); females, AMNH 692491 (10664), AMNH 692492 (11602), AMNH 692493 (11601), AMNH 692495 (10666), AMNH 692496 (10668). Two paratypes that were cataloged by Mathews did not come to AMNH: no. 10663, female, 17 October 1911, and no. 11603, male, 10 November 1911.

Coopers Camp was situated across Apsley Strait from the mission on Bathurst Island ( Hart and Pilling, 1964: 101). Bathurst Island Mission Station, 11.45S, 130.41E (Times Atlas).