Tricodere [sic] cockerelli

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 : 55-57

Tricodere [sic] cockerelli jardinei Mathews

Tricodere [sic] cockerelli jardinei Mathews, 1917: 71 (Jardine Creek, North Queensland).

Now Trichodere cockerelli (Gould, 1869) . See Salomonsen, 1967: 349, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 307, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185–191, and Higgins et al., 2008: 669.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 695119 , adult male, collected on the Jardine River, 10.55S, 142.13E ( USBGN, 1957), Cape York Penin-

sula, Queensland, Australia, on 30 April 1911, by William R. McLennan. From the Mathews Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Mathews identified his type as a male collected on 30 April 1911 on Jardine ‘‘Creek.’’ AMNH 695119 is the only Mathews specimen collected on that date that came to AMNH. It bears McLennan’s original label, a Mathews type label, and a Mathews label marked ‘‘Figured’’ in Mathews’ hand. It is figured in Mathews (1924: pl. 535, lower fig., opp. p. 498, text p. 498) and is there confirmed as the type of jardinei. An AMNH type label has been added, as it had not previously been included in the AMNH type collection. My measurements of this holotype are almost exactly the same as those published by Mathews (1924: 498) except for wing length. My measurement of 78 mm for the wing compares with 66 mm given by Mathews, an obvious error. The published measurements were not written on the specimen label, nor were measurements written on any of the other specimens.

In the original description, there was no suggestion of a range larger than the type locality or an indication of how many specimens Mathews examined. Four Jardine River specimens collected in 1911 by McLennan in addition to the holotype came to AMNH. The fledgling female described but not figured by Mathews (1924: 499–500) is now AMNH 695123 , juvenile female, collected on 14 May 1911, and cataloged by Mathews as no. 17314 on 2 June 1913, obtained from MacGillivray, for whom McLennan collected. It is definitely a paratype. I did not find the other three specimens in Mathews’ catalog, but they are also probably paratypes: AMNH 695120 , immature male, 12 May ; AMNH 695121 , adult female, 9 May ; AMNH 695122 , immature female, 26 April. It is likely that Mathews obtained them, along with the holotype, from MacGillivray during his visit to Australia in 1914. He obtained other specimens at that time, including the type series of Macgillivrayornis claudi (see above), but he cataloged few specimens after 1913 .

The holotype of jardinei bears a Mathews Collection label that I can only explain as an error on Mathews’ part. Written on it in ink by Mathews, is his catalog number ‘‘12631,’’ the locality ‘‘ Somerset, Cape York,’’ and ‘‘ Ptilotis cockerelli , ’’ with ‘‘ jardinei ’’ and ‘‘ type ’’ added in pencil in the same hand. Opposite no. 12631 in his catalog, Mathews entered a specimen from ‘‘Cape York,’’ without further data, that was listed as having been acquired from BMNH. There is nothing on this holotype to indicate that it came from BMNH, nor are there Mathews specimens of T. cockerelli in AMNH that have only the locality ‘‘Cape York.’’ There is one specimen from ‘‘ Somerset, Cape York,’’ AMNH 695156, that Mathews obtained from Rothschild and cataloged as his no. 4168, properly attributed to Rothschild. Because Mathews mentioned no locality other than ‘‘Jardine Creek’’ for T. c. jardinei, the ‘‘Somerset’’ label does not appear to have anything to do with the holotype of jardinei or with the taxon. On the other hand, there is no question that the holotype of T. c. jardinei was collected by McLennan. Unlike most collectors who tie field labels on the tarsometatarsus, McLennan frequently attached them to his specimens by tying both legs together above the tibiotarsal joint. The result of this is that the legs are splayed outward below this joint, not crossed as is characteristic of most specimens. All five AMNH specimens from the type series have McLennan’s labels attached in this way.

North (1912: 120) introduced the genus Trichodere with Ptilotis cockerelli as the type species, and based his decision to introduce a new generic name on specimens seen by him that had been collected by McLennan for MacGillivray on the Jardine River. Mathews (1912f: 127) considered this name a homonym of Trichoderes and provided the replacement name Hemiptilotis with the same type species. Under the international rules of nomenclature in effect in 1912, as well as those in effect today, these two names would not have been considered homonyms. Nevertheless, Mathews (1912f: 127) added the caveat excusing his introduction of the new name: ‘‘For the benefit of those who would prefer the slightly differing rules accepted by the American Ornithologists’ Union.’’ The name Trichoderes was neither introduced by Gmelin in 1843 ( Mathews 1912f: 127) nor by Guerin in 1843 ( Mathews, 1924: 496), but by Chevrolat in 1843 in a work on the Coleoptera of Mexico ( Sherborn, 1932: 6581). Further confounding this unnecessary introduction of a new generic name, Mathews (1917: 71) used and misspelled Trichodere when naming the subspecies jardinei (long after he had introduced Hemiptilotis in 1912) and used Hemiptilotis in ‘‘Birds of Australia’’ ( Mathews, 1924: 496).

MacGillivray (1914a: 179) reported on the specimens of this species collected by McLennan on the Jardine River, which included the 1911 specimens examined by North and those Mathews obtained from MacGillivray, but he did not say how many specimens were collected.