Corvus (Pica) stridens Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1828

Steinheimer, Frank D., 2009, The type specimens of Corvidae (Aves) in the Museum für Naturkunde at the Humboldt-University of Berlin, with the description of a new subspecies of Dendrocitta vagabunda, Zootaxa 2149 (1), pp. 1-49 : 12

Corvus (Pica) stridens Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1828 : plate XX

TL: Syria.

Now Garrulus glandarius atricapillus I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1832 (nomen protectum). See Sharpe 1877: 97, Hartert 1903: 32, Kumerloeve 1962: 5.

SYNTYPES: ZMB 1424. [No sex or age given]. Loc.: Syria. Date: 1824 [cf. Stresemann 1954 b: 171: 18 May to 6 August 1824]. Coll.: Hemprich & Ehrenberg [No. 45/46 given on label]. [Ex, Mus, Meise MS]. ZMB 1425 [specimen missing]. [No sex or age given]. Loc.: Syria. Date: [not given; in Stresemann 1954 b: 171: 18 May to 6 August 1824]. Coll.: Hemprich & Ehrenberg. [Mount or Ex, A/R, Meise MS].

COMMENTS: The same specimens are also syntypes of Corvus iliceti Gloger, 1833 . Wilhelm Friedrich Hemprich (1796–1825) joined Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg’s (1795–1876) second expedition to explore the Arabian Peninsula and North-East Africa from Egypt to the Nubian region and the Red Sea south to coastal Abyssinia ( Eritrea), enriching the ZMB collection by 4671 specimens of 429 species of Oriental and North African birds ( Humboldt 1826, Gebhardt 1964). The two specimens were included in the 9th shipment to the ZMB, numbered 45 and 46, respectively, and came from collecting activities in Syria between 18 May and 6 August 1824 ( Stresemann 1954 b: 175). Dresser & Blanford (1874: 337) list a single type specimen in their work on Hemprich and Ehrenberg’s type material, and also Meise in his MS from 1949–1950 could likewise account for a single specimen only. ZMB 1425 is assumed to have been lost or exchanged between 1833 and 1874. The original description is dated from the plate not from the text which was given on the second page of folio ‘z’, in a footnote, issued February 1833. There is some discussion on whether the second set of plates, XI–XX, was indeed published as early as 1828. Zimmer (1926: 204) mentions plates of the Symbolae Physicae seu Icones adhuc ineditae [sic] which were printed in 1899 ( Hemprich & Ehrenberg 1899) but these plates are not the same set referred to above; Zimmer attributed here a date to an illustration of the skeleton of Ciconia abdimii and non-avian illustrations of Hemprich and Ehrenberg published posthumously by O. Carlgren. The ornithological plates IX and XII of the ZMB copy of Hemprich & Ehrenberg’s original Symbolae Physicae seu Icones et Descriptiones Avium were printed on the same sheet of paper with a continuous watermark – this speaks for publication of all ornithological plates I–XX in 1828. This date is already recorded for the first set of plates, I–X, by Zimmer (1926: 204). The fixation of the publication date as early as 1828 makes the name Garrulus glandarius atricapillus I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1832 , a junior synonym of Garrulus glandarius stridens ( Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1828) . In the interest of nomenclatural stability, however, and in accordance with the Code ( ICZN 1999, articles 23.9.1.1. and 23.9.1.2.) I herewith state explicitly that the junior synonym Garrulus glandarius atricapillus I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1832 (nomen protectum), is valid; it has been in prevailing usage as the taxon's presumed valid name in more than 25 works published by more than 10 authors from 1958–2008 (i. a. Vaurie 1959: 140; Flach 1959: 172; Blake & Vaurie 1962: 231; Kumerloeve 1962: 5; Keve 1969: 16; Kumerloeve 1969: 195; Hüe & Étchécopar 1970: 527; Benson 1970: 116; Keve 1973: 188; Goodwin 1976: 225; Wolters 1977: 225; Keve 1985: 15; Paz 1987: 232; Hovel 1987: 146; Heinzel et al. 1988: 305; Howard & Moore 1991: 538; Haffer 1993: 1383; Cramp & Perrins 1994: 7; Baumgart 1995: 104; Andrews 1995: 149; Madge & Burn 1999: 96; Sibley & Monroe 1990: 465; Monroe & Sibley 1993: 199; Shirihai 1996: 567; Beaman & Madge 1998: 745; Svensson et al. 2000: 332; Clements 2000: 601; Dickinson 2003: 508, Kirwan et al. 2008: 411), therefore fulfilling article 23.9.2. of the Code ( ICZN 1999). The older name Corvus stridens Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1828 (nomen oblitum), is from now on invalid; it has not been used as a valid name after 1899 ( Hartert 1903: 32; Salvadori 1909: 1; Hartert 1918: 432; Meinertzhagen 1920: 199; Ticehurst 1926a: 3 [misspelled atricapellus]; Stresemann 1928b: 338; Antonius 1929: 33; Bodenheimer 1935: 155; Paludan 1938: 590; Kleiner 1939: 178; Dementiev et al. 1954: 69; Moore & Boswell 1956: 164; Kasparyan 1956: 48; Kuroda 1957: 75), fulfilling article 23.9.1. of the Code ( ICZN 1999).