Passer rufidorsalis megarhynchos C.L. Brehm

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 : 6

Passer rufidorsalis megarhynchos C.L. Brehm

Passer rufidorsalis C.L. Brehm, 1855b: 277 (in N.- O.-Afrika).

Passer rufidorsalis megarhynchos C.L. Brehm, 1856: 376 (in Ostsudahn und sind bei Chartum).

Now Passer domesticus rufidorsalis C.L. Brehm, 1855 . See Hartert, 1918a: 15; Vaurie, 1959: 570– 571; Dickinson, 2003: 716; and Summers-Smith, 2009: 793–794.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 456520 , adult male, collected on the Blue Nile ( Blauer Nil, as on label), Sudan, on 25 October 1850, by A.E. Brehm. From the Brehm Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description of rufidorsalis, Brehm did not say how many specimens he had or identify a specimen that could be considered a type; however, the only locality mentioned was ‘‘N.-O-Afrika.’’ Hartert (1918a: 15) discussed the species and considered the above specimen the type of P. rufidorsalis , thereby designating it the lectotype. Although the specimen is marked ‘‘ Passer rufidorsalis medius’’ by Brehm, Hartert was unable to confirm that the name ‘‘medius’’ had ever been published. Later, Vaurie (1959: 570) restricted the type locality of P. rufidorsalis to Kartoum, Sudan. This restriction is not valid according to the Code (ICZN, 1999: 87, Art. 76.2), as the Blue Nile is the collecting locality of the lectotype, according to the label information.

Hartert (1918a: 15) also thought that the same specimen fit Brehm’s (1856: 376–377) description of Passer rufidorsalis megarhynchos and was the type of both names. In his description of megarhynchos, Brehm divided his P. rufidorsalis into two subspecies, megarhynchos and microrhynchos, noting that he had specimens of both in both sexes. There are only two Brehm specimens labeled ‘‘ medius ’’ by him, the other being a female specimen also said to have come from the Blue Nile and collected on the same date. If AMNH 456520 is accepted as the lectotype of megarhynchos, then AMNH 456522, female, collected on the Blue Nile, on 25 October 1850, by A.E. Brehm should be considered a paralectotype of megarhynchos.

Both megarhynchos and microrhynchos were said to live ‘‘in Ostsudahn und sind bei Chartum nicht eben selten,’’ but in the description of P. rufidorsalis , the only locality mentioned was northeast Africa. AMNH 456523, female, was collected at Khartoum on 30 September 1850, but it is labeled ‘‘minor’’ by Brehm and was not discussed by Hartert.