Melanocorypha bimaculata gaza Meinertzhagen

LeCROY, M. A. R. Y., 2003, TYPE SPECIMENS OF BIRDS IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. PART 5. PASSERIFORMES: ALAUDIDAE, HIRUNDINIDAE, MOTACILLIDAE, CAMPEPHAGIDAE, PYCNONOTIDAE, IRENIDAE, LANIIDAE, VANGIDAE, BOMBYCILLIDAE, DULIDAE, CINCLIDAE, TROGLODYTIDAE, AND MIMIDAE, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 278 (278), pp. 1-156 : 14

Melanocorypha bimaculata gaza Meinertzhagen

Melanocorypha bimaculata gaza Meinertzhagen, 1919:

84 (Shellal).

Now Melanocorypha calandra gaza Meinertzhagen,

1919. See Vaurie, 1959: 35.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 555144 , adult male, collected at Shellal , near Beersheba , 31°15′N, 34°47′E (Times Atlas), on the Wadi Gaza , Israel, on 10 September 1917, by Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen (no. 250). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: The type series consisted of five specimens, all collected at the same place on the same date ( Meinertzhagen, 1919: 84). Vaurie (1959: 35) referred to the five ‘‘paratypes’’, but this is incorrect. Meinertzhagen (1919: 84), in the original description, said that the type was a male in the Rothschild Collection. Only two of the original type series came to AMNH with the Rothschild Collection. The male specimen cited above is the holotype and bears the Rothschild type label; AMNH 555145, a female, is a paratype.