© The Author, 2016. Journal compilation © Australian Museum, Sydney, 2016 
Records of the Australian Museum (2016) Vol. 68, issue number 1, pp. 31—43. 
ISSN 0067-1975 (print), ISSN 2201-4349 (online) 
http://dx.doi.Org/10.3853/j.2201-4349.68.2016.1642 
On Some Types of Birds (Aves) from the Solomon Islands 
Named by Edward Pierson Ramsay 
Ian A. W. Me Allan 
Information Access & Advisory Services, Library, Macquarie University NSW 2109, Australia 
Abstract. In the years 1879-1882 the Curator of the Australian Museum, Edward P. Ramsay, named 15 
bird taxa largely based upon specimens collected in the Solomon Islands by James F. Cockerell in 1878. 
Investigations based upon the original correspondence and examination of the specimens determined 
that the specimens used by Ramsay to describe these taxa were dispersed to at least six museums. The 
number of types collected by Cockerell is larger than previously thought, with only 40 of the 93 known 
extant type specimens being held by the Australian Museum. The dates of publication of these taxa, the 
journals of original publication and related nomenclatorial issues are discussed. 
Keywords. Aves, Solomon Islands, zoological nomenclature, Edward Ramsay, James Cockerell. 
McAllan, Ian A. W. 2016. On some types of birds (Aves) from the Solomon Islands named by Edward Pierson 
Ramsay. Records of the Australian Museum 68(1): 31-43. 
In 1995, while looking for type specimens in the bird 
collections of Museum Victoria, I came across several 
specimens that are arguably types of taxa from the Solomon 
Islands. These taxa were described by Edward Pierson 
Ramsay, Curator of the Australian Museum from 1874 to 
1894, and are represented amongst the type specimens held in 
the Australian Museum (Etheridge, 1917; Longmore, 1991). 
Further research has revealed that type specimens from these 
collections from the Solomon Islands were dispersed to at 
least six museums. 
The specimens in Museum Victoria were purchased from 
James F. Cockerell in 1879. James F. Cockerell was, like his 
father John T. Cockerell, a natural history collector (Whittell, 
1954). He collected specimens on Cape York Peninsula in 
1867-1868, in Samoa and the Bismarck Islands in 1875— 
1876, the Solomon Islands in 1878, Western Australia in 
1879, and Cape York and the Aru Islands in 1880. He finally 
settled near Mildura in Victoria where he collected for the 
South Australian Museum, both in the local area and in South 
Australia itself. 
The specimens referred to in this paper are from 
Cockerell’s collections made when aboard the schooner 
Ariel under the command of Captain Neil Brodie in late 
1878. Cockerell is known to have collected at three localities, 
Cape Pitt, the south-eastern point of Nggatokae in the New 
Georgia group; Lango [now = Lungga] on Guadalcanal; and 
the island of Savo (Whittell, 1954; Ramsay, 1879b). It is not 
known exactly when the specimens were collected, though 
many have details on tags that give general collection dates 
of October or November 1878. The Ariel was still present in 
Sydney in late May 1878 when it was reported to be tied up 
to Grafton Wharf (Anon., 1878). According to a newspaper 
account, th q Ariel left the Solomon Islands on 21 December 
1878 and arrived in Sydney on 6 January 1879 (Anon., 
1879). Nothing is really known of what business was actually 
being conducted by the Ariel. The Ariel left Sydney again 
on 26 March 1880 on her last voyage and was sunk in deep 
water after hitting a coral reef—apparently off the coast of 
Guadalcanal (Anon., 1880). Brodie and the crew “together 
with a large number of natives” were able to make shore. Two 
