Meliornis novaehollandiae assimilis 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 : 141-142

Meliornis novaehollandiae assimilis Mathews

Meliornis novaehollandiae assimilis Mathews, 1912a: 415 (Victoria) .

Now Phylidonyris novaehollandiae novaehollandiae (Latham, 1790) . See Salomonsen, 1967: 427, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 311–312, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185–191, and Higgins et al., 2008: 667–668.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 692179 , adult male, collected at Olinda , 37.51S, 145.22E ( USBGN, 1957), Victoria, Australia, on 17 April 1911, by Thomas Tregellas. From the Mathews Collection (no. 9062) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews cited his catalog number of the holotype in the original description and gave the range of the form as ‘‘ Victoria.’’ The holotype bears, in addition to Tregellas’ label, Mathews and Rothschild type labels and a label marked ‘‘Figured’’ in Mathews’ hand, indicating that it was the model for Mathews (1925a: pl. 544, opp. p. 14, text p. 16), where it is confirmed as the type of assimilis.

The following specimens are paratypes of assimilis: Frankston, AMNH 692165 (Mathews no. 3322), male, 25 September 1908 ; Olinda, AMNH 692166 (9064), male, 17 April 1911 ; AMNH 692168 (10104), female, 8 July 1911 ; AMNH 692169 (10108), male, 14 October 1911 ; AMNH 692172 (10107), male, 10 September 1911 ; AMNH 692175 (9065), male, 13 May 1911 ; AMNH 692178 (10106), male (cataloged as a female), 8 July 1911 ; AMNH 692180 (4971), female, 7 June 1909 ; AMNH 692181 (9063), female, 13 May 1911 ; AMNH 692183 (10105), female, 8 July 1911 ; AMNH 692185 (5055), sex?, 3 June 1907 ; AMNH 692186 (5056), sex?, 6 June 1908 ; Aspendale Park, AMNH 692190 (3319), female, 15 July 1906. The following specimens were collected before assimilis was published on 31 January 1912, but I did not find them in Mathews’ catalog ; they are possible paratypes: Olinda, AMNH 692176 , male, 30 January 1909 ; AMNH 692177 , male, 14 July 1901 ; AMNH 692182 , female, 15 August 1908 ; Bayswater, AMNH 692187 , male, 4 May 1907 .