230 
C.B. and D.W. Frith 
in the Museum of Victoria, Melbourne (NMV, 
HLW 6590 and 6591). The International 
Commission for Zoological Nomenclature 
recommends that, in the case of such a situation in 
a revision of a taxon (such as the present one) a 
lectotype be formally designated. We therefore 
designate the Museum of Victoria female specimen 
NMV, HLW 6591 as the lectotype of Chlamydera 
guttata carteri. This specimen was collected on 7 
August 1916 and has "nova type" written in pencil 
on Tom Carter's original label. The other five 
specimens of this form collected during early 
August 1916 are therefore paralectotypes. 
For bibliographical comprehensiveness and in 
order to avoid potential future confusion, we note 
that in his account of his collection of the type 
series of C. g. carteri, Carter (in Carter and 
Mathews 1921) provided chronological details 
contrary to the label data on his specimens. His 
account indicated that he collected four birds on 6 
August, another on 7 August and one more on 9 
August 1916. As label data on Carter's female 
specimens are unambiguously clear, we use these 
and conclude that his subsequent written account 
is erroneous. 
A possible additional factor contributing to the 
isolation of C. g. carteri on the North West Cape is, 
as several authors have noted, that Western 
Bowerbirds feed a great deal upon fruits of, and 
thereby closely associated with the distribution of, 
the fig tree Ficus platypoda, which grows in 
sheltered woodland among rocky ranges (Marshall 
1954, Serventy 1955, Serventy and Whittell 1962, 
Gilliard 1969, Cooper and Forshaw 1977, Binsted 
1978). This rock-associated fig is significantly 
sparse or absent in the expansive low arid desert 
sand plains that separate the sandstone and 
limestone Cape Range of the North West Cape 
from more extensive and complex rocky outcrops 
of the Hamersley Range to the east (CS1RO 1960). 
Emphasizing the significance of the (approximately 
two hundred kilometre) isolation of the (up to 300 
metres above sea level) dissected limestone ranges 
of the Cape Range is that the skink Lerista allochira 
is a distinct species dependant upon and endemic 
to them (Kendrick 1989). In addition, four other 
reptiles species are all but endemic to the Cape 
Range peninsula in that three occur elsewhere only 
to a short distance eastward and one a short 
distance southward (Kendrick 1993). The lack of 
available water in this arid lowland barrier might 
also be significant. If so, these factors would 
account for the isolation and resultant marked 
differentiation of the North West Cape Western 
Bowerbird population (Figure 1, Table 1, Plate 1). 
The fact that C. guttata has spread, probably only 
quite recently, beyond the southern limit of Ficus 
platypoda (R. E. Johnstone in lilt.) does not negate 
this possibility. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
This study would not have been possible without 
the cooperation of several institutions and their 
staff. We acknowledge Peter Arnold, Museum of 
Tropical Queensland, Les Christidis, Ian McAllan 
and Rory O'Brien, Museum of Victoria, Melbourne; 
Richard Schodde, Ian Mason and John Calaby, 
National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO, Canberra; 
Ron Johnstone, Western Australian Museum, 
Perth; Lester Short, Joel Cracraft, Mary LeCroy and 
the Chapman Fund, American Museum of Natural 
History, New York; Philippa Horton, South 
Australian Museum, Adelaide and Robert Prys- 
Jones, Peter Coulston and Michael Walters, The 
Natural History Museum, Tring, U.K. for access to 
and/or help with specimen loans or literature. Joan 
Airey, Jeff and Barbara Davies, Peter and Daphne 
Fullager, Mary LeCroy and Peter and Janet 
Marsack provided most kind hospitality. For 
constructively commenting on a draft of this 
contribution we sincerely thank Walter Boles, Allan 
Burbidge, Les Christidis, John Dell, Ron Johnstone, 
Norbert Lenz, Ian McAllan and Richard Schodde. 
Dedicated to the memory of Dom. (D.L.) Serventy 
who ruefully wrote (1950) "After the exacting task 
of delimiting subspecies ..- it will be mostly a 
matter of selecting one of the numerous 
Mathewsian labels". 
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