Gliciphila albifrons incerta 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 : 145-146

Gliciphila albifrons incerta Mathews

Gliciphila albifrons incerta Mathews, 1912a: 399 (Carina, Victoria).

Now Purnella albifrons (Gould, 1841) . See Salomonsen, 1967: 429, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 315, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185–191, and Higgins et al., 2008: 609.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 691992 , female, collected at Carina , 35.15S, 141.06E ( USBGN, 1957), Victoria, Australia, on 25 September 1908. From the Mathews Collection (no. 3088) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews cited his catalog number of the holotype in the original description and gave the range as ‘‘ New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia.’’ Two specimens are probable paratypes, but I do not know when Mathews acquired them as I did not find them in his catalog: AMNH 691985 , female, collected at Tailem Bend , South Australia, on 25 September 1908 ; and AMNH 691986 , male, collected at Underbool (Mallee), Victoria, on 13 September 1910. Four additional specimens are possible paratypes but may not have been in Mathews’ hand before the publication of incerta on 31 January 1912, nor did I find them cataloged: AMNH 691973 , female, Leighs Creek , South Australia, 16 August 1911 ; AMNH 691994–691996 , two males, one female, collected at Walpeup , Victoria, in November 1911 .

This species was included in the genus Phylidonyris , subgenus Purnella , by Schodde and Mason (1999: 315). DNA sequence data obtained by Driskell and Christidis (2004) indicated generic level differences. Purnella was used by Christidis and Boles (2008) and by Higgins et al. (2008: 609).