A history and reassessment of the unique but missing specimen of Rawnsley's Bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus rawnsleyi, Diggles 1867, (Aves: Ptilonorhynchidae)

Abstract

The first comprehensive history and reassessment of the unique, now lost, skin specimen of Rawnsley's Bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus rawnsleyi, Diggles 1867, is discussed. The specimen was previously thought to have conceivably represented an aberrant adult or advanced subadult male Satin Bowerbird, but some traits exhibited by it suggested this was unlikely. On balance, Rawnsley's Bowerbird was, until 2004, best considered to represent a unique adult male individual of a natural hybridisation between a Regent Bowerbird Sericulus chrysocephalus and a Satin Bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus violaceus. Following the completion of the present paper, an individual adult male bird apparenly of this putative hybrid combination was sighted and photographed in early November 2003 and this remarkably coincidental record is detailed, illustrated and discussed in the context of this contribution.