Pinarocichla schmackeri Styan

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 : 87-88

Pinarocichla schmackeri Styan

Pinarocichla schmackeri Styan, 1892: 6 (Hainan).

Now Criniger pallidus pallidus Swinhoe, 1870 . See Sharpe, 1892: 19, Dickinson et al., 2002b: 128, 141.

SYNTYPE: AMNH 566112, adult female, collected at Na Ta (= Nodouha), 19°34′N, 109°35′E (Times Atlas), interior Hainan Island, Guangdong, China, on 1 May 1891, by B. Schmacker (no. 262). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: This specimen had not previously been recognized as a type and the whereabouts of the type or types was unknown (E. Dickinson, personal commun.). In January 1904, Rothschild purchased from Styan nine specimens of Chinese birds, but no list accompanies that notation in Rothschild’s partial list of purchases (Archives, Dept. of Ornithology). AMNH 566112 qualified as a possible syntype, but neither Schmacker’s nor Styan’s name appears on either the original label or on the Rothschild label, and confirmation of the handwriting as that of Schmacker was needed. E. Dickinson and M. Walters (personal commun.) compared the handwriting on known Schmacker labels in BMNH with photocopies of the label on the above specimen and found that they appeared to be by the same hand. Additionally, a syntype of Cryptolopha bicolor , described by Styan (1892: 6) at the same time also came to AMNH with the Rothschild Collection. The original labels on the two specimens are printed identically and appear to be written by the same hand. The Rothschild label on C. bicolor indicates that Schmacker was the collector.

The original label on AMNH 566112 has the collector’s data in Japanese, with the locality, date, iris color, measurements, and no. 262 in Schmacker’s hand. The sex symbol is an upside­down female symbol. In this case, it appears correct to consider the specimen a female because the syntype of C. bicolor was sexed as a male by Schmacker’s collector, with the sex symbol correctly made. Pinarocichla schmackeri n. sp., presumably written by Styan, has been crossed out and Criniger pallidus added by the same hand.

Styan (1892: 6) described five new taxa, giving minimal information, with no indication of the number of specimens or the exact locality: ‘‘Similis P. euptilosae sed rectricibus minimè albo terminatis distinguenda. Long. tot. 8.9, alae 4.2’’. The wing of AMNH 566112 measures 104 mm (ca. 4.2 in.), and the total length of the skin is 224 mm (ca. 8.9 in.). It does indeed lack the white tips on the rectrices present in P. euptilosae (= Pycnonotus eutilotus ), but differs in many other characters as well. In the Ibis for January 1893, Styan’s (1893a: 54–57) ‘‘new species’’ were republished with the addition of a detailed description of ‘‘several specimens’’ of P. schmackeri from the interior of Hainan. At the 21 December 1892 meeting of the British Ornithologists’ Club, R. Bowdler Sharpe (1892: 19) had exhibited Styan’s types and reported that P. schmackeri proved to be a synonym of Criniger pallidus . This discovery was apparently too late to be incorporated by Styan (1893a). Later, Styan (1893b) published a comprehensive paper on the birds known from Hainan, accepted Sharpe’s proposed synonymy, and gave further information regarding Schmacker’s collection. In none of these papers was a type designated.

The collection Schmacker sent to Styan (1893b: 425) numbered about 40 specimens and was the second made by his Japanese hunter, Tetsu. It came from ‘‘mountainous regions of the south­west, made between May 1891 and January 1892 ’’. Styan (1893b: 426, 429) noted that Tetsu collected specimens of Criniger pallidus at Nodouha (No Tai) in May and at Liuwowan in December.

Dickinson et al. (2002b: 128, 141) noted that several specimens in BMNH appear to be syntypes of P. schmackeri , although the taxon was not listed by Warren and Harrison (1971).

See Pasquet et al. (2001) for the results of recent DNA studies.