Mirafra africana transvaalensis Hartert, 1900

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 : 8

Mirafra africana transvaalensis Hartert

Mirafra africana transvaalensis Hartert, 1900: 45 (Rustenburg, Transvaal) .

Now Mirafra africana transvaalensis Hartert, 1900 . See

Keith et al., 1992: 23.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 556644 , adult male, collected at Rustenburg , 25°40′S, 27°15′E ( R. J. Dowsett, personal commun.), South Africa, in February 1894 by W. Ayres. From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In his original description, Hartert did not specify a type other than by the locality, Rustenburg. Two males and a female from Rustenburg came to the AMNH with the Rothschild Collection and would have been syntypes. Hartert (1919: 165) also did not unambiguously designate a lectotype by adding the February collecting date, as both males were collected in February. The type label is attached to AMNH 556644, and the field label is annotated in hand unknown ‘‘Type of Mirafra a. transvaal’’. Because it was obviously Hartert’s intent that this specimen be the type and because it has been so considered since the form was named, I hereby designate AMNH 556644 the lectotype in order to avoid any possible future confusion with regard to the older literature. AMNH 556645, with the same data, and AMNH 556646, female, collected 20 August, 1894, thus become paralectotypes. Other Transvaal specimens in the Rothschild Collection were collected after 1900.