TYPE SPECIMENS OF BIRDS 331 



Genus PERISOREUS Bonaparte 



[Perisoreus canadensis, var.] fumifrons "Ridgway" Henshaw 



Annual Report of the Secretary of War, for 1879, 2 (3) : 2260, 1879. 

 Perisoreus canadensis fumifrons Ridgway 

 Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 3 : 5, April ? 1880. 

 =Perisoreus canadensis pacificus (Gmelin). See Stresemann, Ibis 



91 : 252, 1949. 

 46024. Adult (sex not indicated). Saint Michael (on the southern shore 

 of Norton Sound), western Alaska. August 29, 1866. Collected by 

 Charles Pease. Original number 182. Western Union Company's Over- 

 land International Telegraph Expedition. 

 Ridgway applied the name fumifrons to birds from "north of Sitka and 

 in the Yukon territory," but immediately following his description gave the 

 habitat of his new form as "Coast of Alaska." There were available to 

 him in the museum some dozens of Alaskan specimens, but No. 46024 is 

 the only adult still at hand that in the strictest sense might be considered 

 as from the "Coast of Alaska." 



In the A.O.U. Checklist of North American Birds, ed. 4, p. 220, 1931, we 

 find the type locality given as Nulato, presumably because, on the labels of 

 two of the six Nulato skins now in the museum, the word "fumifrons" ap- 

 pears in Ridgway's hand. Inasmuch as Nulato is not a coastal locality, it 

 seems to me best to accept the earlier restriction made by Ridgway himself 

 (Birds of North and Middle America 3 :370, 1904) . In this case, No. 46024 

 will be the only possible lectotype. 



By an accident, Henshaw's use of the name fumifrons antedated Ridgway's, 

 even though, after discussing the difference between specimens from Maine 

 and from Alaska, Henshaw considered the latter unworthy of nomenclatorial 

 recognition. 



We know only that Henshaw had seen a minimum of seven skins in the 

 Smithsonian collection, all of which must have been used also by Ridgway. 

 Since there is no reason whatsoever to suppose that No. 46024 was not 

 among them, and so far as possible to avoid confusion in the future, I here 

 designate No. 46024 as the lectotype also of P. c. fumifrons Henshaw. 

 Perisoreus obscurus rathbuni Oberholser 



Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 30: 185, Dec. 1, 1917. 

 ==Perisoreus canadensis rathbuni Oberholser. See Hellmayr, Catalogue 



of birds of the Americas 7 : 69, 1934, 

 302077. Adult male. Crescent Lake, Clallam County, Washington. April 

 21, 1916. Collected by Samuel F. Rathbun. Original number 828. 

 Received from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which acquired it 

 from Samuel F. Rathbun. 



