Aerial diving display, with calling, by Black Falcon Falco subniger D.J. Whelan 24 Manning Boulevard, Darley VIC 3440, Email: [email protected]

Australian Field Ornithology 2014, 31, 43–49

Early South Australian records of the Western 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 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 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 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. comm.); neither has it been possible to trace those sent to South Africa and Tasmania.

Discussion The two grasswren skins from the Macleay Museum and the MNHN were in good condition and looked very similar. The specimens in the Brussels collection were in fair condition also, considering their age, although some damage and loss of feathers were evident, particularly in the female skin. All are identified as Amytornis textilis myall; their existence demonstrates that the subspecies Western Grasswren – early South Australian records 47 was collected long before it was described. Two questions arise: who collected these specimens, and why were they sent to other museums yet unavailable for examination by South Australian ornithologists in the early 20th century? Supportive documentation of the origin of these specimens was found in archival SAMA documents. In a book titled 1869-1872 – Donations containing records of acquisitions during that period are the following entries: ‘F W Andrews (Lake Gairdner) received 13 January 1871, 3 Amytis texilis [sic]’; and ‘December 1871 F W Andrews supplied the following specimens from the Gawler Ranges [inter alia] 1 Texile Wren Amytis texilis [sic]’. A fifth specimen of ‘Amytis texilis’ is recorded in a separate list of bird skins (SAMA Bird section files) supplied by Andrews from the Gawler Ranges in 1873. The two earliest specimens of ‘A. textilis’ reported here were collected by or for George Grey and by Frank Gibson, respectively. The latter was taken from the periphery of the Flinders Ranges, and Grey’s was more likely to have been from there than from the Gawler Ranges; they probably both represent early South Australian records of A. modestus. It seems likely that Gibson’s specimen was sent to Cockerell in June 1870, which was before Andrews’ first bird specimens were received from the region in January 1871. Cockerell’s skin collection is now housed in the NHM, Tring, UK. Sharpe (1883) listed two specimens of Amytornis textilis from the Cockerell Collection; they are ‘BM 81.11.7.1229’ and ‘BM 81.11.7.1230’, which were later relabelled as Thick-billed Grasswrens of the extinct NSW subspecies Amytornis modestus inexpectatus. I examined both on 30 September 2012 and agree that they are Thick-billed Grasswrens but their subspecific status is uncertain. Standard wing, tail and bill measurements were respectively 57, 79.7 and 11.8 × 5.1 mm for 1229 (a female) and 61, 73.2 and 11.2 × 5.1 mm for 1230 (a male). Tail-length of the female specimen (79.7 mm) lies outside the range for females of the Flinders Ranges subspecies A. m. raglessi (66.4–74.7 mm, n = 10: Black 2011b) but that of the male (73.2 mm) is mid range for the subspecies (69.3–77.8 mm, n = 11: Black 2011b). Tail-length of six males of A. m. inexpectatus ranges from 79.5 to 91.2 mm, but a seventh specimen (of less certain provenance) has a tail-length of 68.9 mm (ABB pers. data). It is possible that the male (1230), the paler of the two, is the specimen collected by Gibson. Frederick William Andrews collected extensively in the 1870s in the Gawler Ranges (Cleland 1937; Hale 1956) where, amongst over 65 bird and several mammal species (ABB pers. data), he collected (and prepared) the great majority of Night Parrot Pezoporus (Geopsittacus) occidentalis specimens held in collections worldwide (Forshaw et al. 1976; Black 2012). No other collector is known to have been active in the Gawler Ranges then, so there can be little doubt that Andrews supplied the four specimens now in Paris, Brussels and the Macleay Museum. Whether Andrews collected the other four specimens reported here cannot be verified. Waterhouse’s monthly reports are known to be incomplete (ABB pers. records). He recorded five specimens received from Andrews between January 1871 and an unknown date in 1873, but listed eight sent to museums and individuals between December 1872 and April 1878. It is possible that some unexamined specimens of ‘Amytis textilis’ in addition to Gibson’s are examples of A. modestus 48 Australian Field Ornithology A.B. Black from the Flinders Ranges or further afield, but Samuel White and Andrews were the only bird collectors known to have been active in the distribution of the latter species during that period and are not known to have taken specimens of it in SA. The fact that grasswren specimens of South Australian provenance exist elsewhere but have not been known from their place (and museum) of origin requires some explanation. In the years that followed the formation of the South Australian Institute Museum (forerunner to SAMA) in 1856, its collections were intended primarily for the enlightenment of the public with an emphasis on mounted display specimens and on exotic species. Local specimens were therefore viewed as exchange currency, and collectors such as Andrews were valued highly for their ability to supply material suitable for exchange with other collectors and collections, including overseas museums (Hale 1956). Documents in the SAMA Archives show that Waterhouse listed the three then recognised grasswren species amongst ‘desiderata’ for exchanges (ABB pers. records); Andrews’ specimens would therefore have been particularly valuable, hence so many being sent away. Collection details were relatively unimportant at that time so a provenance of ‘South Australia’ is likely to be the most that survives. On the retirement of Waterhouse in 1882, his successor, Wilhelm Haacke, found that specimens still at the South Australian Institute Museum had deteriorated to such an extent from exposure and insect attack that he discarded most if not all within a short time, hoping to replace them with new material. In SAMA archives, in a book titled Diary 1874-1880 (but including some later material), is his ‘List of Australian birds rejected in cleaning the museum &c to be replaced by new specimens’. The list included two ‘Amytis texilis’ and two ‘Amytis striatus’. Although it is not certain that the first two were specimens of A. t. myall, for reasons already outlined, it is likely that they were, and thus the last two of Andrews’ Gawler Ranges grasswren specimens were lost to the Museum. With the untimely death of Andrews, their most prized collector, in 1884, the expectation of specimen replacement was only slowly and incompletely realised. Specimens of any species that Waterhouse had sent overseas for expert assessment, e.g. to John Gould, were presumably returned when requested but did not survive the cleanout of the 1880s (Hale 1956; ABB pers. records). Although the need for adequate examples of study skins for (local) scientific examination was recognised towards the close of the 19th century (Hale 1956), e.g. for founding members of the South Australian Ornithological Association, A.M. Morgan, E. Ashby, J.W. Mellor, S.A. White and A.H.C. & F.R. Zietz (Truran 2000) or Gregory Mathews, most earlier material and much of its documentation were unavailable for the purpose.

Acknowledgements I am grateful to Walter Boles, Australian Museum, Sydney, for directing me to the grasswren specimens in the Macleay Museum, to its Curator, Jude Philp, to Robert Prŷs-Jones, NHM, Tring, UK, for advice and help in locating the Brussels specimens, Anne Préviato, MNHN, Paris, France, and Georges Lenglet, Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. Reviewers Philippa Horton and Wayne Longmore made very helpful suggestions for expanding and modifying the submitted manuscript. Raurie Bowie, Gary Voelker and Kathryn Medlock offered assistance in my unsuccessful search for Cape Town and Tasmanian specimens. Western Grasswren – early South Australian records 49

References Black, A. (2011a). Western Australia, home of the Grass-Wren (Amytornis textilis). Amytornis 3, 1–12. Black, A. (2011b). Subspecies of the Thick-billed Grasswren Amytornis modestus (Aves- Maluridae). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 135, 26–38. Black, A.B. (2012). Collection localities of the Night Parrot Pezoporus (Geopsittacus) occidentalis (Gould, 1861). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 132, 277–282. Black, A.B., Joseph, L., Pedler, L.P. & Carpenter, G.A. (2010). A taxonomic framework for interpreting evolution within the Amytornis textilis-modestus complex of grasswrens. Emu 110, 358–363. Black, A., Schodde, R. & Préviato, A. (2013). Early grasswren specimens in Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, and the types of Western Grasswren Amytornis textilis (Maluridae). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 133, 24–30. Chenery, A. (1903). List of birds observed during a trip from Port Augusta (S.A.) to Yardea Telegraph Station, Gawler Ranges, in August, 1902. Emu 2, 167–168. Cleland, J.B. (1937). The history of ornithology in South Australia. Emu 36, 197–221, 296–312; Emu 37, 33–47. Forshaw, J.M., Fullagar, P.J. & Harris, J.I. (1976). Specimens of the Night Parrot in museums throughout the world. Emu 76, 120–126. Gould, J. (1840–1848). The Birds of Australia. Author, London. Hale, H.M. (1956). The first hundred years of the South Australian Museum; 1856-1956. Records of the South Australian Museum 12, 1–225. Mathews, G.M. (1916). (Description of Diaphorillas textilis myall). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 36, 90. Mathews, G.M. (1922–1923). The Birds of Australia, Volume 10. Witherby, London. Morgan, A.M. (1924). The nest and eggs of Diaphorillas Textilis Myal. South Australian Ornithologist 7, 159–160. North, A.J. (1902). On three apparently undescribed species of Australian birds. Victorian Naturalist 19, 101–104. Sauer, G. (1999). John Gould, the Bird Man: Correspondence. Volume 3. Author, Kansas City, Kansas, USA. Sharpe, R.B. (1883). Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Volume VII. Trustees, London. Truran, J. (2000). The foundation period: 1899-1913. In: Collier, R., Hatch, J., Matheson, B. & Russell, T. (Eds). Birds, Birders & Birdwatching 1899-1999, pp. 18–56. South Australian Ornithological Association Inc., Flinders Press, Adelaide. White, S.A. (1913). Field ornithology in South Australia. The Gawler Ranges. Emu 13, 16–32. Whittell, H.M. (1954). The Literature of Australian Birds: A History and a Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Paterson Brokensha, Perth. Zietz, F.R. (1913). Report of the ornithologist, Robert Zietz. In: Report of the Board of Governors of the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of South Australia for 1912-13, p. 11. Government Printer, Adelaide.

Documents examined in SAMA, Adelaide, and NHM, Kensington, UK Bird section file ‘F.W. Andrews’. Diary 1874-1880. 1869-1872 Donations. Exchanges 1864-1867 [includes ‘desiderata’]. Exchanges 1874-1882. Monthly reports of Museum Curator (original in SA State Records GRG 19-168). Zoological Accession Register 1841-21.3.1844 (NHM). Received 20 March 2013