Serinus flavigula Salvadori, 2013

LeCroy, Mary, 2013, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 11. Passeriformes: Parulidae, Drepanididae, Vireonidae, Icteridae, Fringillinae, Carduelinae, Estrildidae, And Viduinae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2013 (381), pp. 1-155 : 61-62

Serinus flavigula Salvadori

Serinus flavigula Salvadori, 1888: 272 (Malcaghebdu) .

Now Serinus flavigula Salvadori, 1888 . See Rand, 1968: 116–119; Erard, 1974; Dickinson, 2003: 747; Fry and Keith, 2004: 484–485; Ash and Atkins, 2009: 365; and Clement, 2010: 524–525.

SYNTYPE: AMNH 713268, unsexed, collected at Melka Ghebdu (5 Malca-Ghebdu), 09.31N, 39.56E ( Ash and Atkins, 2009: 417), Shewa (5 Shoa), Ethiopia, on 19 February 1885 (not 1886), by Vincenzo Ragazzi (no. 512). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: This specimen was listed by Salvadori (1888: 272) as one of his three specimens of S. flavigula , although he misread the date as 1886. It bears the original label with the number 512 on it. On the reverse of this label, Salvadori has written: ‘‘ Serinus flavigula Salvad. , nov. sp.?’’ (with the? marked out) ‘‘Typical specimen,’’ ‘‘b,’’ and ‘‘7.a.’’ The ‘‘b’’ refers to the letter opposite this specimen in the original description. I do not know the significance of the ‘‘7a.’’

This type was not mentioned by Hartert in any of his Rothschild type lists and was apparently first referred to as in AMNH by Erard (1974: 308), after which it was found in the collection by Carlo Violani and added to the AMNH types. Rand (1968) considered S. flavigula to be ‘‘yellow-throated aberrant specimens or mutants’’ of S. atrogularis xanthopygius . Erard (1974: 320–322) thought it was best considered a full species as Irwin (1961: 138–139) had suggested. Subsequent authors have followed them for this very rare species.