Curruca obsoleta Brehm

LeCroy, M., 2008, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History. Part 7. Passeriformes: Sylviidae, Muscicapidae, Platysteiridae, Maluridae, Acanthizidae, Monarchidae, Rhipiduridae, And Petroicidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 313 (1), pp. 1-287 : 74-75

Curruca obsoleta Brehm

Curruca obsoleta Brehm, 1855: 229 (Oberitalien) .

Now Sylvia undata undata (Boddaert, 1783) . See Hartert, 1918a: 33, and Shirihai et al., 2001: 273–275.

Probable Lectotype: AMNH 455652 , female, collected in Italy in September 1829. From the Brehm Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Hartert (1918a: 33), when listing this specimen as the type of obsoleta , said ‘‘The words ‘oben tiefgrau’ in the description do not well suit this specimen, which is really brown on the upperside, but I believe that ‘tiefgrau’ is a slip, misprint or fault.’’ Also, while the name obsoleta appears in Brehm’s hand on his label, along with other names, it has been marked out. I did not find any other Brehm specimens labeled obsoleta , and it is possible that the difference in color is related to foxing of the specimen.

The spelling of this name in the original description was ‘‘ obceleta ’’; however, the index to this volume ( Brehm, 1855: xviii) spells the name ‘‘ obsoleta ’’ and refers the reader to p. 229. According to the Code (ICZN, 1999: 39, Art. 32.5.1), this serves as clear evidence of an inadvertent error and must be corrected. Hartert (1918a: 33) did so without comment.