Ortygis ocellata

Quick answer

Holotype: ZMB 11460 (Lichtenstein 1832, Nr. 54 sub “ Ortygis ocellata ”), skin, ♀, collected by Meyen in “ April ” [corrected to 15 Sep – 16 Oct 1831; see below] in “ Peru ” [corrected to southern Luzon; see below]. Type locality. Meyen (1834 a: 101) wrote that he collected the holotype in southern Peru, where the bird allegedly occurred “ auf mittleren Höhen von 10 oder 12,000 Fuss und darüber ” (“ at an elevation of 10 or 12,000 feet and more ”). Lichtenstein (1832) stated that the specimen was collected in Peru in April, which agrees with Meyen’s (1834) data. However, as suggested already by Tschudi (1846: 283), the specimen originated from Manila, Meyen’s data being erroneous. The bird is indeed a female Turnix ocellata, the occurrence of which is limited to the northern Philippines (Debus 1996). We thus agree with Tschudi (1846) that Meyen almost certainly procured the specimen on Luzon (see Meyen’s itinerary). Considering Meyen’s sojourn in Luzon (Meyen 1835), the holotype could have been collected only in the vicinity of the city of Manila or at Laguna de Bay. We thus ascertain the type locality as southern Luzon (city of Manila or Laguna de Bay), Philippines.