TYPE SPECIMENS OF BIRDS 433 



Baird had six specimens, treated at the original description as cotypes 

 (not all of which might now be considered representative of H. m. "aliciae") , 

 but the fact that he himself wrote "Type of species" on the label of the one 

 bird collected by Miss Kennicott leads me to accord type status to it alone. 

 No. 10083, taken by Kennicott himself on Apr. 29, 1857, reached Washing- 

 ton at the same time as No. 10084; it is clear from the quotation given above 

 that Alice's skin could not have been collected later than Robert's. 

 Hylocichla aliciae bicknelli Ridgway 



Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 4: 377, Apr. 13, 1882. 



^Hylocichla minima bicknelli Ridgway. See Wallace, Proc. Boston Soc. 

 Nat. Hist. 41 : 238-242, 1939. 



95545. Adult male. Summit of Shde Mountain, Ulster County, New York. 

 June 15, 1881. Collected by Eugene P. Bicknell. Original number 

 652. Received from Eugene P. Bicknell. 



95546. Adult female. Riverdale-on-Hudson, Bronx County, New York. 

 Oct. 8, 1881. Collected by Eugene P. Bicknell. Original number 706. 

 Received from Eugene P. Bicknell. 



This race was based upon seven specimens, the property of Eugene P. 

 Bicknell, each of which was made an equivalent cotype; if some of them 

 are to be considered as having a superior claim to typeship, these would 

 be Bicknell's Nos. 652 and 653, which alone of the series v/ere taken on the 

 breeding ground. The seven were returned to Bicknell after Ridgway had 

 completed his study, but in February 1884 a pair was presented by the 

 collector to the U.S. National Museum, and at some subsequent date the 

 male, No. 95545, was singled out by Richmond as the type. 



That the donor did not feel that he was presenting us the type may be 

 shown by quotation from a letter of Feb. 18, 1884, addressed to Ridgway: 

 "I owe you a profound apology for not having sent you long before this 

 the promised specimens of T. bicknelli. As I told you when you were in 

 N.Y. I was reserving the type specimens of the bird to show to some who 

 desired to see them. Now I send one of the type Catskill birds ( $ ) and a 

 5 from Riverdale. I met with a most unfortunate and vexatious accident 

 with several of my specimens of this bird. I had set some aside in a cigar 

 box preparatory to taking them to N.Y. The box remained undisturbed 

 longer than I had expected and when I opened it, although it had be [sic] 

 left in a dark closet high on a shelf, Dermestes were at work! — In this way 

 the 9 I send has the tip of her bill destroyed — I send it because it is the 

 smallest example of the form that I have ever seen, and in other respects 

 is the best female I have. The Catskill example I send is less typical than 

 the one I retain, which is much browner above, more reddish on the tail, 

 and is the specimen about which you particularly remarked the Luscinia 

 character of bill. This I would have sent, believing that the U.S. Museum 

 or Smithsonian ought to have the best type specimen, but as it shows slight 

 marks of dermestes, I send the more perfect one." 



