Sitta Neumayer Michahelles

Pachycephalidae, Aegithalidae, Remizidae, Paridae, Sittidae, Neosittidae, Certhiidae, Rhabdornithidae, Climacteridae, Dicaeidae, Pardalotidae, Nectariniidae, And & Lecroy, Mary, 2010, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 8. Passeriformes:, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2010 (333), pp. 1-178 : 82

[ Sitta Neumayer Michahelles ]

Mlíkovský (2007: 100) suggested that three

Brehm specimens, AMNH 456038 , male adult, no date on original label ; AMNH 456039 , male juv., May 1829 ; and AMNH 456040 , female adult, collected in 1830, all from ‘‘Dalmatien,’’ might be syntypes of Sitta Neumayer Michahelles, 1830 . There is nothing on the Brehm labels to connect these specimens with Michahelles ; and, in fact, all three were identified by Brehm as Sitta syriaca Ehrenberg. All three had the sex indicated on Brehm’s labels, and one is undated on Brehm’s label with 1830 added to the Rothschild label, contra Mlíkovsky´. There is also a fourth Brehm specimen, AMNH 456041 , unsexed and undated, but also from Dalm[atien, part of label missing]. Unless further evidence surfaces to link these specimens to Michahelles, they have been retained in the regular collection with a reference to Mlíkovský’s paper .

Hellmayr (1911: 11) listed Sitta orientalis Brehm as a synonym of S. neumayer , apparently believing that Brehm (1831: 207) had named the form, based on a manuscript name of Natterer’s. Brehm (1831: 207) said: ‘‘Im Berliner Museum steht ein Kleiber aus dem Morgenlande, Sitta Syriaca, Ehrenberg ; er hat grosse Aehnlichkeit mit Sitta orientalis, Natt. … Er lebt in südlichen Dalmatien.’’ None of the Brehm specimens in AMNH are labeled orientalis and I have not seen this name referred to elsewhere.