Turdus merula syriaca Hemprich & Ehrenberg

Mlíkovský, Jiří & Frahnert, Sylke, 2011, Type specimens and type localities of birds collected during the Hemprich and Ehrenberg expedition to Lebanon in 1824, Zootaxa 2990, pp. 1-29 : 13

Turdus merula syriaca Hemprich & Ehrenberg

Turdus Merula var. syriaca Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833: 54 . [Note that “var.” was replaced with Greek letter β in a footnote on the same page.]

Now. Turdus merula syriacus Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833 . See Hartert (1910: 669).

Type series. Hemprich and Ehrenberg (1833: 54) based this form expressly on a single specimen (see also Lichtenstein 1825, Nr. 35), which is thus its holotype.

Holotype (lost): ZMB 3487, collected in July 1824 ( Lichtenstein 1825) in “ Syrien ” (Inventory Catalogue of the ZMB) [= northern Lebanon]. The specimen was listed in the Inventory Catalogue of the ZMB only as Turdus merula , but with a remark "Var. rostr. valid.", i.e. large-billed variant, which agrees with the diagnosis given by Hemprich and Ehrenberg (1833: 54).

Type locality. Turdus merula var. syriaca was described from “ Syria ” ( Hemprich & Ehrenberg 1833: 54; see also Hartert 1910: 669, Vaurie 1959b: 403). The type specimen was collected in “ Syria, Julio” ( Lichtenstein 1825; see also Stresemann 1954: 175; 1962: 387). Knowing the itinerary of Hemprich and Ehrenberg, we restrict here the type locality to northern Lebanon between Beirut, Baalbek and Tripoli.

Remarks. The holotype was not found in the ZMB in September 1873 (Dresser & Blanford 1874: 340).