Melithreptus alisteri 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 : 114

Melithreptus alisteri Mathews

Melithreptus alisteri Mathews, 1910a: 85 (King Island, north of Tasmania).

Now Melithreptus affinis (Lesson, 1839) . See Salomonsen, 1967: 397, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 286, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185–191, and Higgins et al., 2008: 675–676.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 691701 , male, collected on King Island , 39.50S, 144.00E ( USBGN, 1957), Bass Strait Islands, Tasmania, Australia, on 11 November 1902, by A.G. Campbell (no. 785). From the Mathews Collection (no. 3012) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Mathews did not designate a type in the original description, but apparently had a single specimen. The type bears, in addition to an original label and Mathews and Rothschild type labels, a ‘‘Figured’’ label which indicates that it was the model for Mathews (1924: pl. 513, upper fig., opp. p. 283, text p. 284) where the figured specimen was said to be the type of alisteri , thus confirming it as the type. The Rothschild type label is annotated with Mathews’ catalog number, although that was not given in the description, and opposite 3012 in his catalog Mathews has written ‘‘ Type of alisteri.’’ A second specimen of alisteri, AMNH 691702, collected by Campbell on 12 November 1902, was never in the Mathews Collection. Campbell (1903) wrote a report on the birds of King Island but did not say how many specimens he collected.

Salomonsen (1967: 397) recognized alisteri as a subspecies of M. affinis ; Schodde and Mason (1999: 286) and Higgins et al. (2008: 675) considered M. affinis monotypic.