Pachycephala schlegeli

Pachycephalidae, Aegithalidae, Remizidae, Paridae, Sittidae, Neosittidae, Certhiidae, Rhabdornithidae, Climacteridae, Dicaeidae, Pardalotidae, Nectariniidae, And & Lecroy, Mary, 2010, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 8. Passeriformes:, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2010 (333), pp. 1-178 : 39-40

Pachycephala schlegeli (sic) obscurior Hartert

Pachycephala schlegeli (sic) obscurior Hartert (in Rothschild and Hartert), 1896a: 15 (The southeastern representative form).

Now Pachycephala schlegelii obscurior Hartert, 1896 . See Coates, 1990: 206–208, and Boles, 2007: 419.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 658327 , adult male, collected in the Eafa district, between mounts Alexander, 09.15S, 147.40E ( USBGN, 1943) and Bellamy , 09.00S, 147.45E ( USBGN, 1943), 5000–6000 ft, Central Province, Papua New Guinea, in October 1895, by A.S. Anthony (no. 17). From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Hartert did not designate a type in the original description but said that he had two males, one from the Eafa district (collected by Anthony in October 1895) and one from the Victoria district (purchased in London, Rothschild and Hartert, 1896a: 8). Rothschild and Hartert (1903a: 103) listed the Eafa district male as the type, thereby designating it the lectotype. The second specimen in the type series was from the Victoria district. There is no specimen now in AMNH labeled ‘‘ Victoria district’’; AMNH 658345, [male] collected on Mt. Victoria in April–June 1896 by a native collector is the only Mt. Victoria specimen of this form to come to AMNH. If the date on that specimen is correct, it could not have been part of the type series, as the article in which the description of obscurior appeared was published in March 1896. There is no reason to doubt the date, because a spot check of Mt. Victoria specimens in AMNH revealed specimens collected there in 1895, 1896, 1897, and 1898, indicating multiple purchases by Rothschild from a London dealer. It is more reasonable to assume that Rothschild exchanged the Mt. Victoria specimen before the Rothschild Collection came to AMNH. Dekker and Quaisser (2006:9) listed a syntype (5 paralectotype) of obscurior in RMNH, collected on Mt. Victoria in 1895 and obtained from BMNH, but that specimen could only be a paralectotype of obscurior if it had been exchanged to BMNH by Rothschild and later exchanged by BMNH to RMNH.

Rothschild and Hartert (1903a: 103) listed a male from the ‘‘Moroka district’’ as ‘‘ Purchased in London’ ’; this specimen is not in AMNH. It may be that this was the second specimen of the original description, as Moroka (ca. 09.25S, 147.35E), while considerably south of Mt. Victoria (08.52S, 147.32E, Times Atlas), is closer to the collecting locality of the lectotype .