Icteria longicauda Lawrence

Icteria longicauda Lawrence

Icteria longicauda Lawrence, 1853: 4 (California).

Now Icteria virens auricollis (Deppe, 1830). See Grinnell, 1932: 300; Hellmayr, 1935: 447; Dickinson, 2003: 768; Curson, 2010b: 798–799; and Chesser et al., 2011: 607.

SYNTYPE: AMNH 40028, adult unsexed, collected in California, undated, by E.S. Holden. From the G.N. Lawrence Collection (a 177).

COMMENTS: Although Lawrence did not designate a type in the original description, AMNH 40028 is marked ‘‘Type. Presented by E.S. Holden’’ by Lawrence. He apparently based his description on this single specimen with a black bill but with the ‘‘edges of both mandibles and an oblong spot on the lower, near the base, greyish-white.’’ He had a second specimen differing from the former in having the ‘‘upper plumage olive brown, and the bill entirely black; in other respects precisely the same.’’ There is a second specimen in AMNH from the Lawrence Collection, AMNH 40029, an undated specimen from California, presented by Dr. A.L. Heerman. I do not consider this specimen a syntype as it has the edges of the upper mandible and almost the entire lower mandible lighter in color. Lawrence may have had a second Holden specimen that he exchanged before the collection came to AMNH.

Grinnell’s (1932: 300) discussion of this type is puzzling. He thought that the type locality was definitely Stockton, California, based on the fact that Holden had collected the type of Larus californicus there, but Holden had also collected birds in Sacramento (see Lawrence, 1853: 4, Ephialtes choliba). The AOU checklist (1910: 324) gave the type locality as ‘‘probably near Sacramento or Stockton,’’ which would seem to be correct. Grinnell further stated that the type specimen was ‘‘at one time given a number in the register of the U.S. Nat. Mus., now no. 40028 in the American Museum of Natural History, New York City.’’ There is no indication of a former USNM number on this specimen, and James Dean (personal commun.) has found no evidence that USNM received a specimen of Icteria from Holden.

Grinnell (1932: 300) gave the number on the Lawrence label as @177 and considered it the ‘‘Baird Catalogue number’’; James Dean (personal commun.) found no. 177 in Baird’s catalog to be a specimen of Picus pubescens from Pennsylvania, and he noted that Baird did not use letters with his numbers. I interpret it as ‘‘a 177,’’ especially as AMNH 40029 is numbered ‘‘b 177,’’ and I think ‘‘177’’ is a Lawrence number for the species.