Birdwatching Tropical Australia: New Species Named by Gould from the Tip of Cape York 1848 to 1869

Here is Part 2 of Gould's New Species at Cape York.

Fawn breasted Bowerbird:

A bower was sent to London to be displayed in the British Museum. Named by Gould in 1850. Local indigenous name recorded at the time Tewinya. A detailed description of the bird’s behaviour near the bower was recorded which alluded to how difficult bowers are to locate and how secretive the bird can be.

Fawn-breasted Bowerbird at the bower

Yellow-breasted Boatbill:

Named by Gould in 1851 based on a single specimen which appears to be a male. The plate below shows a reproduction of the original depiction of Gould’s Yellow-breasted Boatbill

The Yellow-breasted Boatbill was “…observed it on the skirts of …dense brushes…making short flights…snapping at passing flies…returning to the same tree…no other samples were seen”

Lovely Fairy-wren:

Collected in 1849 and named by Gould in 1852. He erroneously named the female and the male as separate species. This took some years to be clarified. Interestingly, James Cockerell who shot the “two species” which, he noted to be always in each other’s company, claimed them to be the same species and Gould refers to this fact in his supplement but refutes it.

White-eared Monarch: Gould received specimens from the Tip of Cape York and Dunk Island so assumed the species was present at all points between. There are 2 records on eBird in the last 7 years for the Tip of Cape York. A single specimen was collected by McLennan in 1914. The authors have not had the good fortune to see this bird at this location, nor did other recent guides. It was named by Gould as a new species in 1851.

Yellow-spotted Honeyeater:

Named by Gould in 1867 the specimen having been sent by John Jardine the original superintendent of Somerset. “…it belongs to a section of the genus of which three or four species are known…largest is Lewin’s Honeyeater…the smallest is Graceful Honeyeater…” (Gould 1869) Gould here perhaps unknowingly foreshadowing the issues separating these species for the next century and a half.

White-streaked Honeyeater:

Named in 1869 initially after the collector James Cockerell. Cockerell was the first native-born non-Indigenous Australian to collect for Gould, previously all had been British. This is the only true endemic Cape York species, all other endemics are found south of Cape York or in New Guinea.

Graceful Honeyeater:

Named by Gould in 1866 for the gracilis subspecies from Cape York. The Wet Tropics imitrix subspecies was named by Mathews in 1912. Following Nielsen’s landmark paper, this split is now accepted by the IOC as 2 separate species i.e., Cryptic Honeyeater now replacing ssp. imitrix. Graceful Honeyeater is now a Cape York species.