Melanocorypha brachydactyla immaculata A.E. Brehm

LeCROY, M. A. R. Y., 2003, TYPE SPECIMENS OF BIRDS IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. PART 5. PASSERIFORMES: ALAUDIDAE, HIRUNDINIDAE, MOTACILLIDAE, CAMPEPHAGIDAE, PYCNONOTIDAE, IRENIDAE, LANIIDAE, VANGIDAE, BOMBYCILLIDAE, DULIDAE, CINCLIDAE, TROGLODYTIDAE, AND MIMIDAE, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 278 (278), pp. 1-156 : 15

Melanocorypha brachydactyla immaculata A.E. Brehm

Melanocorypha brachydactyla immaculata A.E. Brehm, 1857b: 455 (Murica [sic] und Madrid).

Now Calandrella brachydactyla brachydactyla (Leisler, 1814) . See Hartert, 1918b: 18, and Keith et al., 1992: 77.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 457667 , unsexed, collected at Murcia, 37°59′N, 01°08′W (Times Atlas), Spain, on 24 August 1856, by Alfred E. Brehm. From the Brehm Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: A second Brehm specimen, AMNH 457680, was collected at Madrid by A.E. Brehm. Both it and the lectotype were originally labeled immaculata by C.L. Brehm and subsequently altered by him to albicollis. Hartert (1904a: 215) considered M. b. albicollis a nomen nudum and gave a reference to it in a list published by A.E. Brehm in 1866. However, the name change to albicollis on the specimens is in C.L. Brehm’s hand. If the name was ever introduced, it would have had to be prior to C.L. Brehm’s death in 1864. I did not find a reference to albicollis earlier than 1866.

In the original description cited above, both Murcia and Madrid were given as localities and Hartert wrote on the Rothschild label of AMNH 457680: ‘‘Cotype [= syntype] of Melanocorypha brachydactyla immaculata !’’. I think that this is correct, but because Hartert (1918b: 18) designat­ ed AMNH 457667 the lectotype, AMNH 457680 becomes a paralectotype. Hartert (1918b: 18) also corrected his incorrect citation of the original description of this taxon in Hartert (1904a: 215), where he had listed it as named by Homeyer in 1873 from a Brehm manuscript.

For a review of taxonomic treatments of this species, see Dickinson and Dekker (2001a: 66– 69).