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Early South Australian Records of the Western Grasswren Amytornis Textilis Myall

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Early South Australian Records of the Western Grasswren Amytornis Textilis Myall Aerial diving display, with calling, by Black Falcon Falco subniger D.J. Whelan 24 Manning Boulevard, Darley VIC 3440, Australia Email: [email protected] Australian Field Ornithology 2014, 31, 43–49 Early South Australian records of the Western Grasswren Amytornis textilis myall Andrew B. Black South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia Email: [email protected] Summary. Records show that the naturalist–collector F.W. Andrews provided five specimens of the Western Grasswren Amytornis textilis myall from the Gawler Ranges for the South Australian Museum, Adelaide (SAMA), in the 1870s, but there is evidence suggesting that he obtained others in that period. Two of these specimens are retained in the collection of the Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium, and one each in the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France, and the Macleay Museum, Sydney. Four ‘Amytis textilis’ sent elsewhere have not been located recently and another two were evidently discarded from the SAMA around 1882. The first of the records that these specimens represent precedes the previously acknowledged earliest observations of the northern Eyre Peninsula– Gawler Ranges subspecies in 1902 by 31 years (Chenery 1903) and the recognition of their taxonomic status by 45 years (Mathews 1916). Introduction The first to publish a report of the Western Grasswren Amytornis textilis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824) in South Australia (SA) was Chenery (1903) although he did not name it, simply listing it as ‘Amytis – (?)’. He and Morgan (1924) saw these grasswrens on Nonning and Mount Ive Stations, central Gawler Ranges, in August 1902 and took two specimens, which Morgan donated ~10 years later to the South Australian Museum, Adelaide (SAMA) (B7359 and B7360) (Zietz 1913). Interpretation of the genus Amytornis at species level remains complex, and early writers such as Chenery were thwarted by a lack of specimens; moreover, the prevailing systematics was Gould’s (1840–1848), who recognised only three species, two incorrectly [his ‘A. textilis’ from New South Wales (NSW) is now recognised as A. modestus and his ‘A. macrourus’ as A. textilis]. The specimens were initially included with grasswrens from Central Australia and NSW as Thick-billed Grasswrens Amytis modesta [= Amytornis modestus] (North 1902), a newly described species. White (1913) next reported them from Myall Creek, Cariewerloo Station, eastern Gawler Ranges, in August 1912 and sent specimens to Mathews (1916), who included them in a list of subspecies of a broadly inclusive Diaphorillas [= Amytornis] textilis and described them as D. t. myall. The lectotype and a paralectotype are now housed in the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) (598074 and 598075) and two other paralectotypes are in the SAMA (B52954 and B52955). Mathews (1922–1923) subsequently grouped the Gawler Ranges grasswrens with others from NSW in the species Diaphorillas inexpectatus. It was Morgan (1924, p. 160) who, after ‘comparing [his] two skins with the fine series of Diaphorillas in the Melbourne Museum’, asserted that they were unquestionably a subspecies of the otherwise purely Western Australian 44 Australian Field Ornithology A.B. Black Diaphorillas textilis and as such they are accepted today with the name Amytornis textilis myall (Mathews, 1916) (Black 2011a). It is shown here that A. t. myall was collected in the 19th century, many years before it was reported or described in the literature. It is important to note that grasswren identification was incomplete at best throughout the 19th century and that specimens of Western and Thick-billed Grasswrens (as presently understood) were all regarded as Amytornis (or Amytis) textilis. Macleay Museum specimen While conducting a morphological review of all available skin specimens of the Amytornis textilis–modestus complex (Black et al. 2010), my attention was drawn to the presence of two South Australian grasswren specimens in the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney, NSW, one of them identified asAmytornis textilis. Examination on 15 June 2010 revealed that the specimen, a male, appeared consistent with, and in fact typical of, A. t. myall. Standard wing, tail and bill measurements (as in Black et al. 2010) were respectively 62, 81.4 and 13.0 × 5.5 mm. Its first label read only: ‘B1210 Amytis textilis, Quoy + Gaim. S. Australia’ but, on a second label, there was in addition: ‘seems to belong to the subspecies A. t. myall of the northern Eyre Peninsula (Nonning-Mt Ive region) see Shane Parker letter’. The letter referred to could not be found, but an accession index recorded that it had been dated ‘9. vi. 1971’; SAMA files confirmed that both grasswren skins had been sent to Parker for his opinion on 3 June 1971. The Curator of the Macleay Museum, Jude Philp, affirmed that the first label was that of George Masters who died on 23 June 1912 (Whittell 1954) and whose custom often had been to provide only what he regarded as a definitive label and to dispense with details of provenance. This surprising specimen of subspecies myall had therefore been collected some time before White’s (1913) type- specimens. Masters had correctly (as now understood) identified and labelled it as the species A. textilis and therefore, presumably, had done so before North (1902) had assigned that population to A. modestus. These deductions relied on assumptions that the specimen did indeed come from SA and that Parker’s and my identifications were sound. Confirmation that the specimen was indeed from SA was found in archival SAMA documents. Monthly reports of the first Museum Curator, F.G. Waterhouse, recorded that ‘1 Amytis texilis’ (sic) skin was among 38 sent to the Macleay Museum in June 1874. Paris specimen Among grasswren specimens that I examined in the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN), Paris, France, on 17 October 2011 (Black et al. 2013) was one identified as Amytis textilis from SA. Labelled ‘1879 – 716’, this specimen looked to be a typical female of A. t. myall. Standard wing, tail and bill measurements were respectively 62, 72.1 and 13.2 × 5.8 mm. Western Grasswren – early South Australian records 45 Documentation in the MNHN showed that this specimen and two specimens of Amytis striata (1879–714 and 1879–715) were among 185 bird specimens acquired from the ‘Musee d’Adelaide’ in 1879. Subsequent examination of archival monthly reports of the Curator in the SAMA confirmed that, among material listed in January 1878 to be sent to Paris for the International Exhibition of 1878, were three grasswren specimens, one ‘Amytis striatus’ and two ‘Amytis textilis’; the MNHN records opposite show that two identified as the former and one of the latter were actually sent. The majority of the specimens sent from the SAMA were transferred to the MNHN at the conclusion of the Exhibition (Hale 1956). Brussels specimens Following an enquiry through the European Curators’ Bulletin Board in February 2012, Dr Georges Lenglet replied that two specimens of Amytornis textilis held in the collection of the Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium, had been exchanged with the Adelaide Museum in 1878; photographs sent subsequently were consistent with their identification as one male (Figure 1) and one female of the subspecies A. t. myall. I examined both specimens on 15 April 2013. The first, a male, was labelled as ‘8257. I. G. 4235 Amytornis textilis (Dumont) Rev. R Verheyen, 1949 S. Australie Ent. 7 xii 1878 Musee d’Adelaide, échange’. Standard wing, tail and bill measurements were respectively 62, 81.2 and 13.1 × 5.8 mm (bill was incompletely closed). The second, a female with richly coloured flank-patches, was labelled ‘8257B. I. G. 4235 Amytornis textilis (Dumont) S. Australie Ent. 7 xii 1878 Musee d’Adelaide, échange’. Standard wing, tail and bill measurements were respectively 62, 87.8 and 12.7 × 5.4 mm. In another SAMA document, a book Exchanges 1874-1882, it is recorded that two skins of ‘Amytis textilis’ were forwarded to the Brussels Museum in April 1878. Other early specimens of ‘Amytis textilis’ in SA The earliest report of a specimen of ‘Amytis textilis’ said to be from SA is contained in Sharpe’s (1883) catalogue of birds in the British Museum, in which a mounted specimen was listed as a presentation from Sir George Grey. My examination of the Zoological Accession Register for 1841–1844 at the Natural History Museum (NHM), Kensington, UK, on 4 April 2013 showed that the specimen was received on 14 July 1843 as ‘BM 43.7.14.230’. It was among two large collections of bird, mammal and reptile specimens sent to Gould by His Excellency Governor Grey from SA and subsequently forwarded to J.E. Gray at the British Museum (Sauer 1999). Regrettably, the specimen has long been lost (R. Prŷs-Jones pers. comm.), and its precise identity, collector and collection locality can only be guessed. Monthly reports of the first Museum Curator, F.G. Waterhouse (SAMA Archives) recorded that Mr Frank Gibson supplied one ‘Amytis texilis’ [= Amytornis modestus] from Edeowie in the Flinders Ranges in August 1869 and that one ‘Amytis texilis’ was forwarded to Mr [J.T.] Cockerell of Brisbane in June 1870. The Curator’s monthly reports also show that two ‘Amytis texilis’ skins were 46 Australian Field Ornithology A.B. Black Figure 1. Amytornis textilis myall. Dorsal (above) and lateral (below) views of male specimen 8257, Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. Photos: Georges Lenglet sent to the Canterbury Museum Christchurch, New Zealand, and one to the South African Museum, Cape Town, in December 1872; another was sent to Mr C.G.H. Lloyd of Tasmania in March 1877. The two skins sent to the Canterbury Museum cannot now be located (Paul Scofield & Trish Nugent-Lyne pers.
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