Pomatorhinus temporalis bamba Mathews

Mary, Croy, History, Bulletin Of The American Museum Of Natural, At, Central Park West, Street, Th, York, New & Ny, 2005, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History. Part 6. Passeriformes: Prunellidae, Turdidae, Orthonychidae, Timaliidae, Paradoxornithidae, Picathartidae, And Polioptilidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2005 (292), pp. 1-132 : 74

Pomatorhinus temporalis bamba Mathews

Pomatorhinus temporalis bamba Mathews, 1912b: 43 (Melville Island, Northern Territory).

Now Pomatostomus temporalis rubeculus (Gould, 1840) . See Schodde and Mason, 1999: 401– 402.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 585940 , adult male, collected at Coopers Camp , Apsley Straits, Melville Island, Northern Territory, Australia, on 20 October 1911, by John P. Rogers (no. 2229). From the Mathews Collection (no. 10767) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews gave his catalog number of the holotype in the original description but did not say how many specimens he had. He did not write this number on the specimen, nor did it bear a Mathews or Rothschild type label, but the data in the catalog match those on the above specimen. Later, when Mathews (1914a: 123) published a list of the birds collected by Rogers on Melville Island, these birds were listed as Pomatostomus temporalis rubeculus without comment, and Mathews (1930: 564) listed bamba as a synonym of rubeculus . The subspecies bamba was recognized by Deignan (1964b: 280).

Sixteen Mathews specimens of P. temporalis collected by Rogers on Melville Island came to AMNH with the Rothschild Collection. None of these has Mathews catalog numbers on the labels. I was able to find 14 of them in Mathews’ catalog by comparing dates of collection and sex with the data on the specimens. The Melville Island speci­ mens were cataloged in three groups. The first group, specimens collected by Rogers in September and October 1911 (‘‘ P. rubeculus ’’ nos. 10763–10767), was cataloged in February 1912 and included the holotype listed above. The second group (‘‘ P. rubeculus ’’ nos. 11536–11540) was cataloged in March 1912 and included specimens collect­ ed as late as 16 December 1911. These were probably not in Mathews’ hand in time for the January 1912 publication of his ‘‘Reference­List’’, in which this form was described. The third group (‘‘ P. rubeculus ’’, a single specimen no. 11921, and nos. 14417– 14420) were cataloged in May and October 1912 and were all collected in 1912. I have considered as paratypes only those specimens in addition to the holotype that were included in the first group: AMNH 585941 (Mathews no. 10766), female, 3 October 1911; AMNH 585942 (no. 10764), sex?, 3 October 1911; and AMNH 585944 (no. 10763 or 10765), female, 20 October 1911. A second female collected on 20 October 1911 was cataloged by Mathews but is not present in AMNH. All of the paratypes were from Coopers Camp.

Pomatorhinus temporalis nigrescens Mathews

Pomatorhinus temporalis nigrescens Mathews, 1912a: 335 (North­West Australia (Strelley Riv­ er)).

Now Pomatostomus temporalis rubeculus (Gould, 1840) . See Mees, 1961: 111–113, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 401–402, and Johnstone, 2001: 86.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 585912 , unsexed adult, collected on the Strelley River, Western Australia, in September 1907. From the Mathews Collection (no. 2076) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: The Mathews catalog number of the holotype was given in the original description, and the specimen bears both Mathews and Rothschild type labels. Mathews did not say how many specimens he examined. AMNH 585913, Mathews catalog no. 2073, collected on the Strelley River in September 1907, is a paratype.

Mees (1961: 111–113) noted that rubeculus is the correct name to use for northwestern Australian subspecies of P. temporalis .