Dicrurus leucophaeus beavani Vaurie

Lecroy, Mary, 2014, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, And Corvidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2014 (393), pp. 1-165 : 53

Dicrurus leucophaeus beavani Vaurie

Dicrurus leucophaeus beavani Vaurie, 1949b: 243 (Khudi Khel (south of Hashim Khel in the foothills or lower slopes of Safed Koh), eastern Afghanistan).

Now Dicrurus leucophaeus longicaudatus Jerdon, 1862 . See Beavan, 1868: 496–497; Stuart Baker, 1918: 295; Vaurie, 1949b: 242–247; 1962: 142– 143; Dickinson, 2003: 491–492; and Rocamora and Yeatman-Berthelot, 2009: 220–221.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 387874 , adult male, collected at Khudi Khel , south of Māmā Kheyl (= Hashim Khel), 34.15N, 69.59E ( USBGN, 1971), in the foothills or lower slopes of Safed Koh, Afghanistan, on 22 May 1937, by Walter Koelz.

COMMENTS: In the original description, Vaurie cited the AMNH number of the holotype and listed two additional males and one female from the same locality as paratypes. Vaurie (1949b: 245) referred to Beavan’s (1868: 497) earlier description of Buchanga waldeni and noted that in the genus Dicrurus it is preoccupied by Dicrurus waldeni Schlegel, 1866 . Vaurie commented that because ‘‘ waldeni never received an adequate description and the present whereabouts of the type is uncertain, I thought it would be preferable to fix a definite type and to redescribe the populations of eastern Afghanistan and the lower Himalayas as a new form….’’ Beavan’s description was based on two specimens he collected near Simla, India, on 2 and 18 June 1866, for which he gave measurements and noted that the underwing coverts and undertail coverts were tipped with white. Beavan was invalided to England in 1870 and died at sea at the age of 29 ( Anonymous, 1870: 301–302), and I have been unable to obtain information on the whereabouts of his collection. However, the characters given are those of immature drongos.

Vaurie’s three paratypes of beavani are: Khudi Khel, AMNH 466644–466646, two males, one female, collected on 22 May 1937, by Koelz.