Sacramela keartlandi cloatesensis Mathews

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 : 93

Sacramela keartlandi cloatesensis Mathews

Sacramela keartlandi cloatesensis Mathews, 1923b: 37 (Point Cloates, Mid-west Australia).

Now Lichenostomus keartlandi (North, 1895) . See Salomonsen, 1967: 381, Schodde and Mason, 1999: 247, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185–191, and Higgins et al., 2008: 605–606.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 695299 , male, 9 September 1901 ; AMNH 695300 , male, 24 June 1902 ; AMNH 695301 , male 16 June 1902 ; AMNH 695302 , male, 1 June 1902 ; AMNH 695303 , female, 24 June 1902 ; AMNH 695304 , female, 14 June 1900 ; AMNH 695305 , female, 2 July 1900, all collected at Point Cloates, 22.41S, 113.41E ( Times Atlas ), Western Australia, Australia, by Thomas Carter. From the Rothschild Collection .

COMMENTS: There are no specimens from Point Cloates in AMNH that had been in the Mathews Collection, but there are seven from that locality, collected by Carter in 1900– 1902, that were part of the Rothschild Collection. One of these, AMNH 695305, was used by Mathews (1924: 525) for the description of the adult female of this form, and he noted that the described specimen was collected on ‘‘ 2 July 1900, and is cloatesensis. ’’ He did not imply that it had type status. The Rothschild label on this specimen is marked ‘‘described’’ in Mathews’ hand. Because at least this specimen must have been examined by Mathews in the Rothschild Collection, accepting the seven Rothschild specimens as syntypes of cloatesensis seems inevitable. However, it seems even more probable to me that Mathews, rushing to introduce names prior to publication of Volume 11 of Birds of Australia, based his name on information sent him by Carter, referred to in Mathews (1924: 525–526): ‘‘[Keartland’s Honey-eater] is the typical Honey-eater, and common, all along the rugged ranges from Point Cloates to the North-west Cape. … In 1890 … I shot some of these birds, seeing that they differed from Ptilotis sonora , and sent a specimen to Mr. A.J. Campbell, who concluded it was only a variety of P. sonora . … In 1895 North described this bird as a new species.’’ A similar statement had been published by Carter (1900: 417). North’s specimen of keartlandi was from the McMinns Range in central Australia, whereas Carter’s specimens were from the coast. The 1890 specimen that Carter sent to A.J. Campbell is not present in NMV (W. Longmore, personal commun.) If found, it also should be considered a syntype of cloatesensis.