TYPE SPECIMENS OF BIRDS 477 



14880. Adult (sex not indicated). State of New South Wales, Australia. 

 1839. Original number 68. U.S. Exploring Expedition (1838-1842). 



Family LANIIDAE: Shrikes 



Genus LANIUS Linnaeus 



Lanius ludovlcianus migrans W. Palmer 



Auk 15 (3) : 248, July 1898. 

 163077. Adult male. Kingston, Frontenac County, Province of Ontario, 

 Canada. Apr. 4, 1898. Collected by C. K. Clarke. 

 L[aiiiits]. ludovlcianus ganibell Ridgway 



Manual of North American Birds, p. 467, September 1887. 

 =Lanius ludovlcianus gambeli Ridgway. See A. H. Miller, Univ. Cali- 

 fornia Publ. Zool. 38: 77, 1931. 

 80468=73971 reentered. Murphy, Calaveras County, California. De- 

 cember 1877. Collected by Lyman Belding. 

 RidgAvay stated that his series consisted of 21 specimens, from "Califor- 

 nia, especially coast district." Since No. 80468 w^as long ago made the 

 lectotype by Ridgway himself, it seems to me advisable to list here only the 

 one specimen, especially since it would now be a matter of the greatest 

 difficulty to reconstruct the original series. 



Miller {loc. cit.) and Grinnell (Univ. California Publ. Zool. 38:297, 

 1932) have been puzzled by the fact that the lectotype should be No. 73971, 

 but is instead No. 80468, with identical data. The explanation is, however, 

 simple. The skin was entered into the register on March 18, 1878, as No. 

 73971. Shortly afterward, Ridgway gathered into his private collection 

 this very specimen which he was later to consider most suitable for lecto- 

 typeship. He removed, and presumably destroyed, Belding's original label, 

 replacing it with one of his own (which it still carries), upon which the 

 data were copied only in part. In August 1880, for no reason now ap- 

 parent, No. 73971, together with more than 100 other skins derived from 

 the national collection, were retransferred from Ridgway's collection to that 

 of the museum, and all were reentered by Ridgway himself under new num- 

 bers, although it should not have been difficult to have traced the original 

 entries. As a result, No. 73971 now became No. 80468, with only the in- 

 sufficient data found on Ridgway's label. The numerous errors noted by 

 Belding in the numbers of his specimens as printed {fide Grinnell, loc. cit.) 

 can probably all be explained by this peculiar curatorial juggling. 

 Lanius ludovicianus anthonyl Meams 

 Auk 15 (3) : 261, July 1898. 

 163074. Adult female. Santa Cruz Island, Santa Barbara County, Cali- 

 fornia. May 6, 1897. Collected by RoUo H. Beck. Original number 

 131. 



