‘The chequered history of Chattering KingfisherTodiramphus tutuson Tahiti’: a response

Abstract

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“…We believe that the observed pattern is best explained by the fact that veneratus was never present on the Leeward Islands and tutus never occurred on Tahiti: this represents the most parsimonious interpretation of the available data. Lee & Holyoak's (2017) commentary on our papers concerning the occurrence of Chattering Kingfisher Todiramphus tutus raises many interesting points. Let us first summarise our original findings.…”

“…-Lee & Holyoak (2017) focused on Lesson as a source that we had neglected in our discussion of Chattering Kingfisher Todiramphus tutus on Tahiti. They are apparently confident in the accuracy of specimen labels from Lesson's era despite that the labelling of even Lesson's own specimens is poor.…”

“…Another important conclusion was that the oldest two specimens of tutus were probably collected by George Bass, who visited French Polynesia, including Tahiti, in 1802 (Jansen 2014). It is unfortunate that Lee & Holyoak (2017) neglect this point because he appears to have been an important source of bird specimens from this region in the period between Cook and Lesson. This brings us to Lee & Holyoak's (2017) arguments.…”

“…It is unfortunate that Lee & Holyoak (2017) neglect this point because he appears to have been an important source of bird specimens from this region in the period between Cook and Lesson. This brings us to Lee & Holyoak's (2017) arguments. Some of these appear to represent long-standing misconceptions (for example, concerning the use of label data on old specimens), while others relate to the situation in French Polynesia (e.g.…”

“…Poor labelling: Lesson's specimens as an example Lee & Holyoak (2017) are apparently confident in the accuracy of specimen labels in the early era of collecting. This is strange because, for specimens of tutus, even Holyoak himself (in Thibault & Holyoak 1984: 138) alluded to the possibility that 'beaucoup de vieux specimens libelles <<Otahiti>> ont pu être collectes ailleurs dans les Iles de la Société' (many old specimens labelled << Otahiti >> could have been collected elsewhere in the Society Islands), without providing details.…”