Tachyphonus Cassinii Lawrence

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 : 73

Tachyphonus Cassinii Lawrence

Tachyphonus Cassinii Lawrence, 1861a: 297 (New Grenada).

Now Mitrospingus cassinii cassinii (Lawrence, 1861) . See Hellmayr, 1936: 353, Storer, 1970: 281–282, Wetmore et al., 1984: 481–483, and Dickinson, 2003: 803.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 40924 (field no. 102), male, AMNH 40925, female, collected by James McLeannan and John R. Galbraith in Panama, and AMNH 40926, male, collected by J.R. Galbraith in Panama. From the George N. Lawrence Collection.

COMMENTS: Lawrence (1861a: 297) based his new name on a single specimen in ANSP that had been identified only as Tachyphonus ? by Cassin (1860: 142, species no. 62) from the ‘‘falls of the Truando,’’ on a single specimen in his own collection that had ‘‘puzzled [him] to know where to place it,’’ and on ‘‘other specimens of both sexes, which I consider reliable’’ that he had received subsequently ( Lawrence, 1861: 298 ). The specimens only have ‘‘Panama’’ as the locality, but it is generally accepted that the type locality of the specimens is the Lion Hill station of the trans-Isthmus railroad, ca. 09.13N, 79.54W ( Siegel and Olson, 2008), the home station of James McLeannan.

There are two other syntypes in Philadelphia: Cassin’s specimen, ANSP 7666, adult, Truando R., Isthmus, Panama, and ANSP 7667, an unsexed and undated specimen presented to ANSP by Lawrence probably in 1864. It was labeled ‘‘ Tachyphonus cassinii ’’ by Lawrence (Nate Rice, personal commun.). This latter specimen is probably the one that had puzzled Lawrence originally.

In the original description, Lawrence did not designate a type. He had written ‘‘Type’’ on AMNH 40924 and 40925, the only two specimens previously included in the AMNH type collection, but this in and of itself does not serve as proof that a specimen has type status (ICZN, 2000: 77, Art. 72.4.7), and all of the specimens Lawrence had when the name was published are syntypes. AMNH 40926 has on the reverse of the Lawrence label the annotation ‘‘Belongs to G.N.L.’’ and may indicate that Lawrence had at some time loaned the specimen; his original labels do not otherwise have his name on them, and his initials would have assured that the specimen was returned to him.