Anthus alaudarius 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 : 53

Anthus alaudarius Brehm

Anthus alaudarius Brehm, 1841 , cols. 208, 215, 216 (Ober­renthendorf).

Now Anthus pratensis (Linnaeus, 1758) . See Hartert, 1918b: 24, and Alström and Mild, 2003: 122

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 458256 , adult female, collected at Renthendorf , 50°48′N, 11°58′E (Gazetteer 43, USBGN), Germany, on 9 April 1820. From the Brehm Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: The above specimen was the first acquired by Brehm and the one designated the lectotype by Hartert (1918b: 24). Two additional specimens from Renthendorf, AMNH 458252 and 458253, cataloged as alaudarius , were exchanged to ZFMK and may be paralectotypes.

In the original description, Brehm (1841: col. 216) gave the date of collection of his first specimen as 19 April 1820. Hartert (1918b: 24) read the date as 9 April 1829, and, thinking this was a second specimen, was puzzled because Brehm (1841: col. 216) had said that he had not acquired a second specimen before 1833. A careful reexamination of the original label indicates that the date on it is 9 April 1820, and that this was the first specimen acquired by Brehm. Brehm could have misinterpreted part of the female symbol in front of the 9 as a 1, and while the year does superficially look like ‘‘29’’, Brehm made his zeros with two pen strokes, rather like (). In this case the two strokes are unequal in length, causing the ‘‘0’’ to look like a ‘‘9’’.