Passer hispaniolensis maltae Hartert, 1902a: 332 (Malta).
Now considered a hybrid between Passer italiae (Vieillot, 1817) and P. hispaniolensis hispaniolensis (Temminck, 1820). See Hartert, 1919: 159; Meise, 1936: 666–667; Vaurie, 1956: 1–7; 1959: 569; Summers-Smith, 1988: 163; Dickinson, 2003: 716; and Summers-Smith, 2009: 794–795.
LECTOTYPE: AMNH 719010, adult male, collected on Malta Island, in May 1861, by Charles Wright (No. 4). From the Rothschild Collection.
COMMENTS: Hartert did not designate a holotype in the original description; by listing Wright’s specimen No. 4 as the type, Hartert (1919: 159) later designated it the lectotype of Passer hispaniolensis maltae. Hartert (1902a: 332) based his description on 34 adult males, 32 of which came to AMNH with the Rothschild Collection. The 31 paralectotypes in AMNH are: AMNH 718979–718982, 718985–718993, 718996–719009, and 719011– 719014. Six of these bear Jardine labels and five of them have Jardine sale numbers in red on the reverse of the label; these probably came to Rothschild from Edward Bartlett (see Hartert, 1919: 159). The remainder came directly to Rothschild from the collectors Wright and Adams, who were collecting on Malta in 1860–1861.
The relationship of the Malta specimens to P. domesticus, P. italiae, and P. hispaniolensis, and of these species to each other, has been much discussed in the literature. The most recent treatment (Summers-Smith, 2009: 794– 795) considered the three to be separate species and maltae a hybrid population between P. italiae and P. h. hispaniolensis.