Nilaus minor Sharpe

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 : 95

Nilaus minor Sharpe

Nilaus minor Sharpe, 1895: 479 (Milmil, Sibbe, The Haud, and Okoto).

Now Nilaus afer minor Sharpe, 1895 . See Fry et al., 2000: 473.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 664291 , adult male, collected at Milmil , 08°22′N, 43°51′E (Times Atlas), Ethiopia, on 27 (not 2) July 1894, by Dr. A. Donaldson Smith (no. 94). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Sharpe (1895: 480) did not designate a type, but listed four specimens, two of which came to AMNH with the Rothschild Collection. The male specimen listed above has ‘‘Co et Topotypus’’ on the reverse of the Rothschild label marked out and ‘‘Typus’’ written in. When discussing the subspecies of N. afer, Neumann (1907a: 362–363) listed minor as one of them. Among the specimens of minor that he studied, he listed the two syntypes in the Rothschild Museum: ‘‘ϐ Milmil (Typus der Art) und ♀ Haud von Donaldson Smith gesammelt’’. In so doing, he designated the Milmil specimen the lectotype. The Haud specimen, AMNH 664292, is a paralectotype.

Hartert (1920: 449) did not agree with this interpretation: ‘‘... this can only be a paratype, as the ϐ ad. from Okoto, 8.ix.1894, in the British Museum is there marked as the type by the author.’’ However, the presence of ‘‘Typus’’ written on the BMNH label does not give that specimen holotype status. Warren and Harrison (1971: 356) referred to the adult male from Okoto in BMNH as a syntype, and Meyer de Schauensee (1957: 220) similarly referred to the male from Sibbe at the PNAS as a cotype (= syntype). However, with Neumann’s (1907a: 363) designation of the lectotype, both of these specimens became paralectotypes.

The date of collection of the lectotype is written as 2.7.7.1894 on the original label. Dates on Donaldson Smith’s (1897) map no. 1 for the area around Milmil are 27–30 July, the Haud specimen was collected on 24 July, and the Sibbe specimen was collected on 3 August (according to Meyer de Schauensee, 1957: 220), not 3 July as cited by Sharpe (1895: 480). Because of these correlations, I think that the lectotype was collected on 27 July.