Falco sparverius sparverioides Vigors, 1827

Cibois, Alice, Vallotton, Laurent, Othman, Nagwa, Weber, Claude & Ruedi, Manuel, 2016, Type specimens of birds in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Geneva, Revue suisse de Zoologie 123 (2), pp. 269-282 : 273

Falco ferrugineus de Saussure, 1859 (junior homonym of Falco ferrugineus Lichtenstein, 1839 ).

1859 Revue et Magasin de Zoologie pure et appliquée, 2 e série, vol. 11: 117, pl. 3, fig. 1.

Now Falco sparverius sparverioides Vigors, 1827 , dark morph.

See Hellmayr, 1942: 560-561.

Holotype: MHNG 507.072 , adult female, collected in Saint-Domingue (see below) by H. de Saussure, acquired by the MHNG in 1859.

Comments: The locality of this specimen is in contradiction with its phenotype. This female ( Fig. 2 ) is a dark morph of the subspecies sparverioides that occurs in South Bahamas, Cuba, Isla de la Juventud, and Jamaica. On the original description, de Saussure wrote “ J’ai tué ce petit faucon dans l’île de Saint-Domingue ” (I killed this little falcon on the island of Saint-Domingue = Hispaniola), where the endemic subspecies (dominicensis J.F. Gmelin, 1788) presents a different, lighter plumage. The description made by de Saussure of the new species corresponds however very well to the MHNG specimen, so we have no reason to doubt that this specimen is not the holotype. The mention “ Cuba ”, written on one of the specimen’s label (not the original label), was treated as a “transcription error” by Hellmayr (1942), based on de Saussure’s mention of Hispaniola. Finally, de Saussure’s name, being established in combination with the same generic name than Lichtenstein’s, is a junior objective homonym and an invalid name (Art. 53.3 of the Code), although both authors referred to different sub-genera ( Buteo for Lichtenstein and Hypotriorchis for de Saussure).

Figures

Fig. 2. Falco ferrugineus de Saussure, 1859 (holotype). MHNG 507.072.