Parus caeruleus obscurus Pražák

Mlíkovský, Jiří, 2011, Nomenclatural and taxonomic status of bird taxa (Aves) described by an ornithological swindler, Josef Prokop Pražák (1870 – 1904), Zootaxa 3005, pp. 45-68 : 57-58

Parus caeruleus obscurus Pražák

[ Parus caeruleus ] obscurus Pražák, 1894f: 246.

NOW. Parus caeruleus obscurus Pražák, 1894 . See Hartert (1905: 348, 1907b: 213), Vaurie (1959: 502), Snow (1967: 114), Dickinson (2003: 525) and Dudley et al. (2006: 555).

Syntype. NHMW 10662, collector unknown, collected on 2 July 1887 at Avington, England. Obtained from R. B. Sharpe in 1891.

Syntype. NHMW 10663, 3, collector and date unknown [= prior to 1892] at Avington, England. Obtained from R. B. Sharpe in 1891.

Remarks. Pražák (1894f: 246) stated that he studied “eine Reihe englischer Exemplare” (“a series of English specimens”), without designating the holotype. Only two relevant specimens were available to Pražák prior to 1895, which thus represent the syntypes of P. c. obscurus . All other specimens may have existed only in Pražák’s mind.

Pražák (1894f: 246) did not specify the type locality of P. c. obscurus , but both syntypes were collected at Avington, England. R. Prÿs-Jones (in litt. 2010) observed that here are two villages of this name in England, one in Berkshire [51.40°N, 01.47°W] and the other in Hampshire [51.09°N, 01.24°W]. The Hampshire Avington was the seat of the English ornithologist George Ernest Shelley (1840–1910) and the place where Shelley and R. B. Sharpe collected many birds during 1871–1886 ( Sharpe 1906: 477; R. Prÿs-Jones, in litt. 2010). I agree with Prÿs-Jones (in litt. 2010) that it is thus “quite certain that the specimens came from Avington, Hampshire”. I thus restrict the type locality to the latter place. Clancey (1948: 108) erroneously believed that Pražák’s types did not survive and restricted the type locality to the “Lake District, England ” (see also Vaurie 1959: 502; Snow 1967: 114), which is an invalid action (Art. 76 of the Code).