Pyrrhocorax alpinus

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 : 17-18

Pyrrhocorax alpinus var. digitata Hemprich & Ehrenberg

Pyrrhocorax alpinus varietas digitata Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833: 50.

Now. Pyrrhocorax graculus digitatus ( Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) . See Hartert (1903: 37), Steinheimer (2009: 24).

Type series. Hemprich and Ehrenberg (1833: 50) clearly stated that they had only a single individual (“Unicum specimen habuimus.”), thus excluding all other specimens from the type series ( ICZN 1999, Art. 72.4.1). Lichtenstein (1825, Nr. 47–48) listed two specimens of these choughs from “ Syria ”, but he probably sold one of them before Ehrenberg restudied this bird (cf. Stresemann 1954; only one specimen was registered in the Inventory Catalogue of the ZMB). Probably forgetting that they collected two specimens, Ehrenberg (in Hemprich & Ehrenberg 1833: 50) referred to a single specimen, apparently that which he examined in the ZMB (Hemprich was already dead at that time). This specimen is thus the holotype. Steinheimer (2009: 24) incorrectly said that Hemprich and Ehrenberg (1833: 50) “referred to two specimens” and listed specimen ZMB 1575 as a syntype.

Holotype: ZMB 1575, skin, unsexed, collected on an unknown date [= 5–24 July 1824] at “Bischerra” (label) [= Bcharré, Lebanon].

Type locality. Type locality of Pyrrhocorax graculus var. digitata was usually given as “ Syria ” (e.g. Hemprich & Ehrenberg 1833: 50, Hartert 1903: 37, Vaurie 1954: 6). Vaurie (1959b: 163; see also C. Vaurie in Blake & Vaurie 1962: 260) restricted the type locality to “ Lebanon ”, respecting data in Stresemann (1954). Label data indicate that the holotype was collected at Bcharré. We thus restrict here the type locality to Bcharré, Lebanon, where the holotype was collected during 5–24 July 1824.