Gazzola unicolor Rothschild and Hartert, 1900: 29 (Banggai, Sula Islands).
Now Corvus unicolor (Rothschild and Hartert, 1900). See Hartert, 1919: 125; Vaurie, 1958: 8–9; White and Bruce, 1986: 322; Dickinson et al., 2004c: 93–95; Dickinson et al., 2004b: 123; dos Anjos, 2009: 620; and Mallo et al., 2010.
LECTOTYPE: AMNH 673967, sex?, collected at Banggai Island, 01.37S, 123.33E (White and Bruce, 1986: 490), Kepulauan Banggai (5 Banggai Archipelago), Indonesia, undated, purchased from [K.] Dunstall. From the Rothschild Collection.
COMMENTS: This name is based on two specimens. No type was designated in the original description. Although Hartert (1919: 125) listed only a ‘‘Type,’’ his listing did not distinguish between the two specimens. Both specimens were included in the type collection at AMNH as syntypes of unicolor. However, only AMNH 673967 had a Rothschild type label, indicating that it was Rothschild’s and Hartert’s intended type, and only it was listed as a type when the Rothschild Collection was cataloged at AMNH; an AMNH type label had been added to AMNH 673966, indicating that the two specimens were syntypes. Mallo et al. (2010: 177) designated AMNH 673967 the lectotype in order to remove the original ambiguity. The second specimen, AMNH 673966, becomes the paralectotype of unicolor. Both are retained in the type collection with added labels indicating their present status.
When Hartert (1919: 125) published on the Rothschild types, he noted that they had received ‘‘a number of well-prepared skins’’ from Banggai, and that he had made sure that they were truly from Banggai Island. The purchase was entered in the manuscript partial list of purchases by Rothschild on 22 November 1900 (Archives, Department of Ornithology, AMNH). Contrary to the usual practice of giving only the total number of specimens, the 28 specimens were listed individually. Most of these specimens came to AMNH with the Rothschild Collection, but none of them have an original label, the locality and ‘‘Native Collector’’ added to a Rothschild Collection label by Hartert.
Hartert (1919: 125) said that the specimens had been purchased from van Renesse van Duivenbode. This must have been a slip of the pen, for according to the listing, the specimens were purchased from Dunstall. I have not been able to find any information on Dunstall, but one other specimen, the type of Rhamphocoelus dunstalli, from Central America or Panama, was said to have been purchased from K. Dunstall (LeCroy, 2012: 80), and BMNH purchased from G.K. Dunstall small lots of birds from Guyana, New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand in 1896 and 1904 (Sharpe, 1906: 343). Dunstall was perhaps a dealer.