Linaria Holboellii C.L. Brehm

LeCroy, Mary, 2013, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 11. Passeriformes: Parulidae, Drepanididae, Vireonidae, Icteridae, Fringillinae, Carduelinae, Estrildidae, And Viduinae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2013 (381), pp. 1-155 : 69-70

Linaria Holboellii C.L. Brehm

Linaria Holboellii C.L. Brehm, 1831: 280 (Er kommt nur Selten…in das mittlere Deutschland).

Now Carduelis flammea flammea (Linnaeus, 1758) . See Hartert, 1918: 10; Vaurie, 1959: 617–618; Dickinson, 2003: 751; and Clement, 2010: 564– 565.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 456888 , male, 21 December 1825 ; AMNH 456889 , adult female ,

15 Dcember 1825; AMNH 456890 , adult male, 23 December 1825 ; AMNH 456891 , adult female, 23 December 1825 ; AMNH 456895 , male, captured 20 November 1822, died 29 August 1823. All of these specimens were collected in the Roda Valley (5 Rodathal, as on label), Germany, and are labeled Holboellii by Brehm. From the Brehm Collection via the Rothschild Collection .

COMMENTS: Hartert (1918: 10) listed as the probable type of Holboellii the specimen that was captured on 20 November 1822 and died 29 August 1823 (now AMNH 456895), but he was unsure of its type status. It does not bear a Rothschild type label, although it does have a red mark across the end of the Rothschild label, a mark Hartert sometimes used to indicate type status. Previously, someone had attached an AMNH type label with a reference to Hartert (1918: 10). However, in the original description, Brehm did not designate a type but said that he had specimens collected in November 1822 and in 1825; he also described the female and said that ‘‘Die einmal vermauserten Männchen’’ (AMNH 456888) is like the female. Therefore, I consider all of the above specimens syntypes of Holboellii. AMNH 456890 and 456891 were tied together, indicating that Brehm considered them a pair.

I do not consider AMNH 456887 a syntype as it is a male captured 20 November 1820 and died on 10 August 1821, dates not mentioned by Brehm. Additional specimens labeled Holboellii by Brehm were collected after the 1831 publication date of the name.