Zosterops superciliosa Reichenow

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 : 41-42

Zosterops superciliosa Reichenow

Zosterops superciliosa Reichenow, 1892: 192 (Wadelai (Kiri und Fadjulli)).

Now Zosterops senegalensis senegalensis Bonaparte, 1850 . See Chapin, 1954b: 180, Mackworth-Praed and Grant, 1960: 736, Fry et al., 2000: 306–310, Carswell et al., 2005: 414, and van Balen, 2008: 470–471.

SYNTYPE: AMNH 699282, adult male, collected at Pajule (5 Fadjulli), 02.58N, 32.57E (Times Atlas), Uganda, undated, by Emin Pasha. From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Reichenow (1892: 192) based his description on two specimens from Wadelai (Kiri and Fadjulli) collected by Emin Pasha, but did not designate a type. The Fadjulli specimen came to AMNH with the Rothschild Collection and Hartert (1920: 433) listed it as either a type or cotype, depending on whether or not Reichenow had actually seen the second specimen in BMNH. That specimen is not listed by Warren and Harrison (1971: 546) but may lie unrecognized in the collection. Neumann (1904a: 111) said that only the two specimens existed, both collected by Emin. According to Hartert (1920: 433), Reichenow had probably borrowed the above specimen from Hartlaub before Rothschild bought part of the Emin collection from him, and it was Neumann who marked the above specimen as the type. Actually, the specimen has been marked both ‘‘Typus’’ and ‘‘Cotypus,’’ and variously overwritten. It does not have the original Emin label, but its label is marked ‘‘Emin coll. ex Hartlaub.’’

Mackworth-Praed and Grant (1960: 736) considered superciliosa a synonym of Z. s. senegalensis ; it was omitted from the synonymy by Moreau (1967: 329).