Cracticus torquatus colletti Mathews, 1912

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 : 68-69

Cracticus torquatus colletti Mathews

Cracticus torquatus colletti Mathews, 1912b: 46 (Northern Territory).

Now Cracticus argenteus colletti Mathews, 1912 . See Amadon, 1951: 7–8; 1962b: 166; Storr, 1977: 101–102; Schodde and Mason, 1999: 538–541; Dickinson, 2003: 463; and Russell and Rowley, 2009: 337–338.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 673539 , adult male, collected on the Mary River , Northern Territory, Australia, on 15 May 1895, by Knut Dahl (no. 1203). From the Mathews Collection (no. 10162) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Mathews gave his catalog number of the holotype and noted the range as Northern Territory. Mathews (1912b: 25) had just received specimens from Professor R. Collett, ZMO, including those collected by Dahl, and the holotype was apparently the only specimen he had. Three specimens in AMNH collected by J.T.Tunney on the South Alligator River in 1903 were never in the Mathews Collection.

Apparently, this holotype had not been recognized prior to Amadon (1962b). Even though it bears a Mathews type label in addition to the original label and a Rothschild Collection label printed ‘‘Ex. Coll. G.M. Mathews,’’ it has no Rothschild type label; the AMNH type label is filled in by Amadon.

Amadon (1962b: 166) considered argenteus and torquatus to be conspecific and, accepting Port Essington as the type locality of torquatus , synonymized colletti with it and recognized four subspecies. Schodde and Mason (1999: 540–541) explained their reasons for considering argenteus specifically distinct from C. torquatus and noted that they accepted Hanover Bay in the Kimberley Division as the type locality of argenteus , leaving colletti as the available name for Northern Territory birds. This was followed by Dickinson (2003: 463). Russell and Rowley (2009: 337) accepted five subspecies in a single species, C. torquatus , including C. t. colletti, but noted that if Port Essington is accepted as the type locality of argenteus , then colletti is a synonym and the name latens Ford, 1979, is available for the Western Australian form (type in WAM).

Dahl (1927: 196–218) and his party were camping at the headwaters of the Mary River in May 1895, in the vicinity of Fountainhead, 13.28S, 131.29E (USBGN, 1957).