Semioptera Gouldi Boucard

Lecroy, Mary, 2014, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, And Corvidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2014 (393), pp. 1-165 : 97-98

Semioptera Gouldi Boucard

Semioptera Gouldi Boucard, 1891: 43 (one of the islands close to New Guinea).

Now Semioptera wallacii halmaherae Salvadori, 1881 . See Boucard, 1893: 57; and Sharpe, 1909: 578.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 678722, adult male, ‘‘Halmahera trade-skin, bought from Boucard. ‘typical specimen’ of Boucard’s Semioptera gouldi .’’ From the Rothschild Collection. AMNH 678725, female, ‘‘Halmahera trade-skin, bought from Boucard by Berlepsch, one of Boucard’s original specimens of his Semioptera gouldi .’’ From the Berlepsch Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Boucard described male and female but did not designate a type, saying only that he had bought ‘‘several specimens’’ that came from ‘‘one of the islands close to New Guinea; but I have not been able to ascertain which.’’ Boucard (1893: 57) later received specimens from Halmahera and found that his name was a synonym of Salvadori’s name halmaherae (see above). S. gouldi was not listed by Mathews (1930: 879) and it seems to have dropped out of synonymies after Sharpe (1909).

I thank Carlo Violani for calling these two syntypes to my attention, as they had not previously been recognized as types.