Zosterops palpebrosa amabilis Koelz

Mary, 2011, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 9. Passeriformes: Zosteropidae And Meliphagidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (348), pp. 1-193 : 6-7

Zosterops palpebrosa amabilis Koelz

Zosterops palpebrosa amabilis Koelz, 1950: 9 (Sasan, Junagarh, Kathiawar, India).

Now Zosterops palpebrosus egregius Madarász, 1911 . See Mees, 1957: 40–51, Mayr, 1967: 294, Rasmussen and Anderton, 2005: 551, and van Balen, 2008: 446–447.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 803074 , adult male, collected at Sasan , 21.10N, 70.26E ( Lozupone et al., 2004), Junagarh, Kathiawar Peninsula, India, on 30 January 1949, by Walter Koelz.

COMMENTS: Apparently, Koelz had the single specimen. In the original description, the type with the above data was said to be deposited in AMNH. However, it was in fact first deposited in FMNH, where it was given FMNH no. 246529, and was later returned to AMNH.

This population from the Kathiawar Peninsula has been treated differently by the several authors who have discussed it. It was recognized by Mayr (1967: 294), with a footnote saying that the Kathiawar Peninsula birds are ‘‘distinctly brighter than populations from the range of egregia. ’’ Mees (1957: 40–51) considered amabilis a synonym of egregius. Dickinson (2003: 625) did not mention amabilis, but restricted egregius to Sri Lanka and, according to the ranges given, considered amabilis a synonym of palpebrosus . Rasmussen and Anderton (2005: 551) tentatively recognized amabilis but noted that it was similar to occidentalis; van Balen (2008: 446) synonymized both amabilis and occidentalis with egregius. Undoubtedly, further study is called for.