Psittacidae

Eclectus cornelia
Bonaparte, 1849: 142

Current name:
Eclectus roratus cornelia

Eclectus Parrot
1 holotype?

Holotype(?): ZMA 261, adult female, undated, ex coll. Amsterdam Zoo; wing 260, tail 150, bill 39.4, tarsus 27.5.

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Additional information
The bird was described from a single bird living in the Amsterdam Zoo and named after the wife of H. Schlegel of the RMNH; it was said to be from "the Moluccas, most probably from Ceram"; wing 8.75 inch [222 mm], tail 5.5 inch [140 mm] (Bonaparte 1849). The friendly behaviour of the bird when it was handled in order to make a description is extensively described. After death, the bird was apparently not sent to the RMNH (no birds of this taxon are present there), but retained in the ZMA. The single bird now present in the ZMA does not indicate its type status (in fact, not unusual, as many birds lack data on this), and as the socle of the dismounted bird has been removed long since, no original notes can be compared. Judged from the make of the mount, the female certainly dates back from the 1860-s, and it closely agrees with the plate presented by Bonaparte (1849). The Zoo had 2 female birds of this taxon in the distant past, first the type which "survived for many long years", followed by another which "died recently" (Finsch 1868). One bird was alive in early 1863 (Finsch 1863), but it is unclear whether this was the type or the second bird. The measurements of the type as supplied by Bonaparte and those taken of ZMA 261 at present do not agree very well; however, Bonaparte's and our present measuring techniques differ, e.g., the wing/tail ratio of Bonaparte's cornelia is 1.58, far from the usual 1.8-2.2 of various other taxa of E. roratus, and Bonaparte's wing length is certainly too short for this taxon: compare the data in Forshaw (1973). This rare large-sized Eclectus-parrot is now known to be confined to Sumba.

Measurements
As far as types in the ZMA are concerned, all measurements were taken by C.S. Roselaar, unless otherwise noted, using the methods as described in Svensson (1992) and comparable with the data published in the Handbook of Western Palearctic Birds. All are in mm, and are given to the nearest mm when taken with a ruler and to one-tenth of a mm when measured with calipers.

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