Leucosticte kadiaka McGregor

Leucosticte kadiaka McGregor

Leucosticte kadiaka McGregor, 1900 (1901): 8 (Karluk, Kadiak Island, Alaska).

Now Leucosticte tephrocotis griseonucha (Brandt, 1842). See Hellmayr, 1938: 260; Howell et al., 1968: 260; Macdougall-Shackleton et al., 2000; Dickinson, 2003: 752; and Clement, 2010: 573.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 366294, adult male, collected at Karluk, 57.33N, 154.32W (Times atlas), Kodiak (5 Kadiak) Island, Alaska, on 14 March 1897, by Cloudsley Ritter (no. 96). From the McGregor Collection (no. 3048) via the Johathan Dwight Collection (no. 37699).

COMMENTS: McGregor gave his collection number of the holotype in the original description, which had been miscopied as 3047 on his label and changed to 3048. This is apparently the correct number as it is also present on the small field tag. The specimen bears, in addition to the field tag, McGregor’s collection label marked ‘‘TYPE’’ in red, a Dwight Collection label, and an AMNH type label. McGregor noted that his specimens were in such worn plumage that wing and tail measurements could not be made, and he gave average bill and middle toe measurements for four males from Kodiak Island. Perhaps he meant that his comparative material was worn, as there are five male specimens in AMNH, all in fresh plumage and apparently from the McGregor Collection, but only the holotype bears a label to that effect. The other four have bracketing numbers on the field label and were collected over the winter of 1896–1897 (one of them on the same date as the holotype). They are: AMNH 366290 (Dwight no. 37696, McGregor no. 3049), AMNH 366291 (37694, 3052), AMNH 366292 (37695, 3051), AMNH 366293 (37698, 3047). I see no way to determine which, if any, of these specimens served as McGregor’s paratypes.

A footnote at the bottom of page 8 noted that ‘‘an author’s edition of 100 copies was distributed Nov. 25, 1900.’’