Geospiza acutirostris Ridgway, 1894

LeCroy, Mary, 2012, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 10. Passeriformes: Emberizidae: Emberizinae, Catamblyrhynchinae, Cardinalinae, Thraupinae, And Tersininae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2012 (368), pp. 1-125 : 38

Geospiza acutirostris Ridgway

Geospiza acutirostris Ridgway, 1894: 363 (Tower Island, Galapagos).

Now Geospiza difficilis difficilis Sharpe, 1888 . See Hellmayr, 1938: 132–133, Paynter, 1970b: 162, and Dickinson, 2003: 795.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 517637 , unsexed [black adult male plumage], collected on Genovesa (5 Tower) Island, 00.20N, 89.58W ( Paynter, 1993), Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. From the G. Baur Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Ridgway gave only the measurements in inches of the type, which was stated to be from Tower Island and in G. Baur’s collection, and mentioned that there were seven specimens, four of which were in black plumage. This description was repeated by Ridgway (1896b: 531–532) and the bill is illustrated in pl. LVII, fig. 21. AMNH 517637 bears an unnumbered USNM type label with the name, locality, Baur’s name, and the number 661 (probably Baur’s field number, but not cited in the description), indicating that it was the specimen Ridgway intended as the type. It bears as well a Rothschild type label with the name, locality, the number 661, and a reference to the description. Ridgway’s measurements of the type were given in tenths of inches, which Rothschild and Hartert (1899: 162) said were correctly given. Measurements in millimeters given by Ridgway (1901: 506) were not said to be of the type, but are a direct conversion from the inches given earlier. A footnote on p. 507 noted that the type was by that time in the Rothschild Collection. Hartert (1919: 152) listed the type without adding any information. Ridgway’s measurements (in millimeters) of the type were: wing 62.23, tail, 40.13, culmen 13.97, depth of bill at base 7.62. My measurements of AMNH 517637 are: wing 63.0, tail 39.5, culmen 14.0, bill depth 8.0. Because the two type labels which AMNH 517637 bears indicate that it is Ridgway’s selected type and the measurements are very close, I consider it the holotype. It is unclear whether Ridgway’s wing measurement was made before or after skinning.

Contra Ridgway, there are eight Baur specimens of acutirostris in AMNH from the Rothschild Collection. All of them are ‘‘ex spirits.’’ Three of them, including the type, are black males, one is unsexed but blackish, and four are females. Paratypes in AMNH are: AMNH 517630–517636. There seems to be no way to tell which three of the four females Ridgway examined, nor is it clear whether they were made into skins before Ridgway saw them or whether this was done by Rothschild. All of them are labeled acutirostris on the Rothschild label. In the absence of further information, I have considered the seven specimens in addition to the holotype to be paratypes of acutirostris .

Geospiza scandens septentrionalis Rothschild