Ptilotis forresti Ingram 1906

Ptilotis forresti Ingram, 1906: 116 (Alexandria).

Now Lichenostomus virescens forresti (Ingram, 1906). See Schodde and Mason, 1999: 234– 235, Christidis and Boles, 2008: 185–191, and Higgins et al., 2008: 598.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 694789, AMNH 694- 790, adults, collected at Alexandria, 19.00S, 136.42E (Times Atlas), Northern Territory, Australia, in July 1905, by Wilfred Stalker. From the Mathews Collection (nos. 3207 and 3206, respectively) via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: No type was designated in the original description, where Ingram said that he had two specimens and that a Gould specimen in BMNH agreed ‘‘fairly well’’ with the two Alexandria specimens. Hartert (1919a: 177) listed as type the specimen, now AMNH 694790, bearing the Rothschild type label and two additional labels. One of the latter is a small tag printed ‘‘MUS. BRIT.’’ and ‘‘SEEBOHM COLL.,’’ both marked out, and bearing the name Ptilotis sonora, with sonora marked out and forresti written in and with ‘‘TYPE’’ written on the reverse. The other label on this specimen is a Mathews Collection label with the place and date of collection filled in and marked ‘‘Type’’ by Mathews. The number ‘‘773’’ on this label refers to the number of this form in Mathews (1908). Despite the fact that this was the specimen that Ingram intended as his type and the specimen Hartert intended to fix as the lectotype, the information given by Hartert (1919a: 177) is ambiguous and applies as well to the second specimen of the type series, now AMNH 694789 (Mathews no. 3207), also collected in July 1905 at Alexandria by Stalker; an AMNH type label has been added to it. The third specimen in the type series is the Gould specimen in BMNH, Reg. no. 1881.5.1.557 5, which Warren and Harrison (1971: 188) listed as a syntype of forresti.

By the time Ingram (1907) reported on the entire collection, he had discovered a third specimen, now AMNH 694791; it has no Mathews catalog number, was not cataloged by Mathews at the same place as the others, and has no date on the original label, only ‘‘Alexandria’’ and ‘‘Stalker.’’ The date of July 05 has been added on the Rothschild label. It was not part of the type series.