Stigmatops indistincta rufescens 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 : 51

Stigmatops indistincta rufescens Mathews

Stigmatops indistincta rufescens Mathews, 1912a: 402 (Northern Territory (Crawford Springs)).

Now Lichmera indistincta indistincta (Vigors and Horsfield, 1827) . See Salomonsen, 1967: 346, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 305–306, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185–191, and Higgins et al., 2008: 661–662.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 694094 , adult female, collected at Crawford Springs , Northern Territory, Australia, on 4 July 1902, by J.T. Tunney (no. R. 664). From the Mathews Collection (no. 5344) 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 ‘‘ Northern Territory.’’ Mathews apparently did not have other Northern Territory specimens when he named rufescens because specimens collected there by K. Dahl in 1894 were not sent to him by Professor R. Collett, ZMO, until after its publication ( Mathews, 1912b: 25). The holotype was one of a number of specimens of various species that Mathews acquired from the WAM and cataloged in September 1910. The number ‘‘7721’’ on the original label is probably a WAM number ; the significance of the number ‘‘821’’ on this label is not known. It bears, in addition to the original label, Mathews and Rothschild type labels with Mathews’ catalog number, and a ‘‘Figured’’ label, indicating that it was illustrated in Mathews (1924: pl. 527, opp. p. 419, text p. 421), where it is confirmed as the type of rufescens.

Tunney’s complete collection was reported on by Hartert (1905a), where this specimen is listed under Stigmatops ocularis (No. R. 664). After publication of Hartert’s article, the collection was divided among WAM, Rothschild, and BMNH. Mathews’ specimen came from the WAM portion of this collection. A Rothschild specimen in AMNH collected by J.T. Tunney on the Alligator River was never in the Mathews Collection.

According to Storr (1966: 63), Tunney was at Crawford Springs, 16.16S, 130.57E, on 4 July, which locality is 9 miles NNW of Victoria River Downs. This is the same locality listed as Crawford Waterhole (USBGN, 1957).

Deignan (1964b: 419–420) discussed this type specimen, noting that it had been preserved in alcohol and had lost lipochrome pigmentation.