Coloeus monedula nigerrimus Kleiner

Lecroy, Mary, 2014, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, And Corvidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2014 (393), pp. 1-165 : 122

Coloeus monedula nigerrimus Kleiner

Coloeus monedula nigerrimus Kleiner, 1939: 13 (Aghbalu Larbi, C. Atlas, Morocco).

Now Corvus monedula spermologus Vieillot, 1817 . See Vaurie, 1959: 165; Blake and Vaurie, 1962: 262; Fry et al., 2000: 555–556; Dickinson, 2003: 512; and dos Anjos, 2009: 617.

HOLOTYPE: AMNH 674019 (not 624019), adult male, collected at Aghbalu Larbi , 2000 m, Middle Atlas Mountains, Morocco, on 5 June 1925, by E. Hartert, prepared by F. Young. From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: By the time Kleiner named this subspecies, the Rothschild Collection was already at AMNH. He had borrowed this specimen and had cited its AMNH number in the original description. In addition to Hartert’s original label, it bears a Kleiner label marked ‘‘Typus,’’ annotated as ‘‘ Coloeus monedula aterrimus ,’’ and an AMNH type label with the name also given incorrectly given as ‘‘ aterrimus.’’ I have not removed this label, but have supplied a new AMNH type label bearing the correct name nigerrimus. I have found no evidence that aterrimus was ever introduced by Kleiner. The AMNH number of the holotype was also misread by Kleiner due to a smear of ink on the number.

The original description by Kleiner (1939) was published in a resumé of his third study of Palaearctic Corvidae , the full manuscript having been submitted to ‘‘ Acta Ornithologica Musei Zoologici Polonici of the Warsaw Museum, but owing to recent events it is doubtful if it will ever appear.’’ I have checked issues of the journal published between 1939 and 1953, both under ‘‘Kleiner’’ and ‘‘Keve,’’ the name he assumed about this time, and have found no article published later by Kleiner or Keve, under which name he published widely after WWII. I thank E.C. Dickinson for information concerning Kleiner’s change of name. Although other specimens were collected by Hartert at the type locality, none of them were mentioned in the description of nigerrimus, and Kleiner perhaps borrowed only the single type specimen.

Hartert (1927: 6–7, 8–9) wrote about his 1925 visit to Morocco. His party was able to go by automobile from Azrou (33.27N, 05.14W, Times Atlas) to Aghbalou Larbi, a fort of the Foreign Legion. He noted that Jackdaws ‘‘came down from the cliffs of the higher peaks…to the plain between the rock of Aghbalou-Larbi and the Tarseft Pass’’ to feed and that he collected six in very worn plumage. From there they proceeded to Timhadit (33.15N, 05.09W, Times Atlas).