Zosterops albiventris cairncrossi 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 : 15-16

Zosterops albiventris cairncrossi Mathews

Zosterops albiventris cairncrossi Mathews, 1916a: 62 (Cairncross Island).

Now Zosterops citrinellus albiventris Reichenbach, 1852 . See Mees, 1961a: 18–26, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 683–684, and van Balen, 2008: 454.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 700248 , adult female, collected on Cairncross Island , Cairncross Islets, 11.15S, 142.56E ( USBGN, 1957), Queensland, Australia, on 20 July 1911, by William R. McLennan. From the Mathews Collection (no. 17282) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Mathews only said that his type was from Cairncross Island; his catalog number, 17282, was added to his collection label, but was not given in the description. His catalog showed that he had two specimens, a male and a female, received from MacGillivray (for whom McLennan collected). Mathews (1923a: 162) described the female of Zosterops albiventris , citing the correct data and noting that the bird described was the type of cairncrossi, thereby designating it the lectotype. In addition to McLennan’s label, it bears a Mathews Collection label, marked ‘‘Type’’ by Mathews, and a Rothschild type label. The paralectotype is AMNH 700247 (Mathews no. 17283), male, collected on Cairncross Island on the same day by McLennan. This specimen bears a ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in Mathews (1923a: pl. 506, middle right fig., opp. p. 156, text pp. 161–162), where the male, with the correct data cited, is said to be figured but is accorded no type status. MacGillivray (1914a: 175) noted the collection of these two specimens.

The generic name Zosterops is ‘‘to be treated as masculine, regardless of its derivation or of its treatment by its author’’ (ICZN, 1999: 35, Art. 30.1.4.3, and previous editions). The specific name has been spelled both citrinellus and citrinella . David and Gosselin (2002: 40), citing Jobling (1991: 56), considered citrinella to be an Italian word falling under ICZN (1999: 38, Art. 31.2.3), and thus indeclinable. However, while Jobling (1991: 56) did consider citrinella an Italian word, he also noted that it was the diminutive of Latin citrinus, citrine. As such, it may be considered either a noun in apposition, with the original spelling retained, or an adjectival form, with gender to agree with that of the genus. Bonaparte (1850) himself, when introducing the name, treated Zosterops as feminine and did not specify whether citrinella was to be treated as a noun or adjective. In this case, usage of the adjectival form with gender agreement would seem to be decisive (ICZN, 1999: 38, Art. 31.2.2). Most of the publications dealing with the area in which this species of restricted range occurs, while accepting the genus Zosterops as masculine, consider the species name to be an adjectival form and use citrinellus (e.g., Beehler and Finch, 1985: 47; Beehler et al., 1986: 193; White and Bruce, 1986: 414; Sibley and Monroe, 1990: 604; Coates, 1990: 328; Andrew, 1992: 38; Coates et al., 1997: 489; Schodde and Mason, 1999: 683–684; and Strange, 2001: 330). Dickinson (2003: 627) apparently accepted David and Gosselin’s assessment without question and some publications since then have followed Dickinson. I believe this assessment to be incomplete and have used the masculine gender ending.