Dendrocitta vagabunda behni, Steinheimer, 2009

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 : 21-22

Dendrocitta vagabunda behni subsp. nov.

Holotype: AMNH 388673 , adult female; Loc. Mulchond Village , Dangs District, N.Western Ghats , S. Gujarat, India, 1300 ft. [396 m]; 20°46’N, 73°39’E. Collected 16 October 1953 by E. M. Shull No. 154.

Paratypes: AMNH 388674, AMNH 348365, AMNH 676958. For specimen data see Table 1 .

Description of holotype: Head, upper breast and mantle Vandyke brown ( Smithe 1975, no. 221) with greyish tinge, becoming sepia (no. 119) towards forehead, lore and chin; caudal margins of mantle and breast are mixed with medium neutral grey (no. 84); belly, flanks, vent and undertail-coverts between chamois (no. 123D) and clay colour (no. 26). Tail graduated with outer tail feathers shortest; upper and under side pale neutral grey (no. 86) graduating to off-white distally with black on distal 4–6 cm. Back, rump and uppertailcoverts cinnamon (no. 123A) with rufous tinge on shoulders. Primaries and secondaries entirely dark sepia (no. 119), 5th secondary in moult in the holotype but paratypes show some pale neutral grey (no. 86) on lower third of outer web. Secondaries 6 to 8 and tertials with entire outer web light grey (6th with darker on tip), inner web sepia. The tip of the folded wing is formed by primaries 4, 5 and 6. Underwing-coverts light grey with hair brown to dark drab tips (no. 119A, 199B), underwing hair brown. Greater wing-coverts sepia; scapulars and remaining upperwing-coverts off-white to white (studied on folded wing). Tail length from skin insertion to tip 237 mm, flat wing from shoulders to tip 150 mm, tarsus from the distal margin of intertarsal joint to distal margin of last undivided scale 31.1 mm, bill from skull to tip 31.3 mm.

Diagnosis: See also descriptions of the name D. v. pallida in recent handbooks (e.g. Ripley 1982: 288, Madge & Burn 1999: 113, Rasmussen & Anderton 2005: 595). Nine subspecies of Dendrocitta vagabunda are currently recognized, although geographical variation is sometimes less pronounced than individual variation within a given subspecies. Geographical variation is basically clinal and all forms intergrade. The overall colour is also affected by the season, feather wear, and bleaching in sunlight. Having said this, though, in India the two southern forms pallida and parvula on one hand, and the northern forms vagabunda , bristoli and behni on the other hand are very distinct in both, measurements and plumage colour. In the study here I can only outline the trends and provide a new name for the population formerly known as pallida . Sample sizes are, however, too small for a review of the taxonomy of the entire Dendrocitta vagabunda complex which is left for future research. Nevertheless, specimens of all nine subspecies have been consulted for the following diagnosis. On average D. v. behni is the second largest (see Table 2 ) subspecies of D. vagabunda found on the Indian Subcontinent, with substantially longer tail and wings than in pallida (former vernayi) or parvula, slightly larger than nominate vagabunda , and on average slightly smaller than bristoli (especially in tail length) but with the bill as deep or deeper as bristoli. The lower breast and belly colourations lack any rufous and are more greyish buff and ochre, respectively, than in nominate vagabunda , bristoli (some have tawny olive; no. 223D) or parvula, which all have a distinct rufous tinge on the belly and flanks. D. v. behni is, however, more intensely coloured brownish on the lower breast and belly than in pallida , which is pure buff ventrally ( Smithe 1975, no. 124). Nominate vagabunda and parvula both show rufous tawny brown (no. 38) on the back and rump whereas in behni the rump is cinnamon, and towards raw Sienna (no. 136) in bristoli. D. v. pallida is distinguished by a light clay colour (no. 123C) on the back and rump. Specimens of behni are darkest in the south of the range where intergradation with parvula is assumed to take place on the western slopes of the Western Ghats towards the coast of Malabar. A specimen from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, shows intermediate characters of bristoli, behni and nominate vagabunda (smaller size, more rufous brown), indicating that intergradation of these three subspecies takes place in the transition zone between the Himalayan foothills and the plains of the Ganges valley on one side, and the Ganges valley and mountains of Madhya Pradesh on the other side. Specimens of subspecies further east ( Myanmar and Thailand to Indochina) differ in having the back and rump darker brown (antique brown, no. 37) than in bristoli or behni, with an olive tinge.

Range: From the hills of East Surat District , South Gujarat, in the Western Ghats south to at least Chitradurga , central Karnataka, south-western Central India (14°14’N, 76°22’E), eastwards to the mountain ridges of the Western Ghats. The holotype is probably from the same hill range to which Paynter (1961: 381) restricted the type locality of pallida (see above).

Measurements: See Table 1 and Ticehurst 1922: 537, Kinnear & Whistler 1930: 17, and Paynter 1961: 382. This subspecies shows clinal variation from larger specimens in the mountains to smaller specimens in the coastal plains of western Central India.

Etymology: Named for Wilhelm Friedrich Georg Behn, the first scientist to recognize the subspecies pallida as a separate taxon.

The name pallida , which had been misapplied to the new subspecies D. v. behni , is a senior synonym of vernayi. Herewith this paper explicitly states that, according to the Code ( ICZN 1999, articles 23.9.1.1. and 23.9.1.2.), the younger name Dendrocitta rufa vernayi Kinnear & Whistler, 1930: 17 cannot be considered a nomen protectum and the valid name of the population has to remain Crypsirhina pallida Blyth, 1846: 30 = Dendrocitta vagabunda pallida ( Blyth, 1846) . The Natural History Museum in Tring (BMNH) holds the holotype of D. v. vernayi, BMNH 1937.12.21.46 ( Warren & Harrison 1971: 580), the ZMB the holotype of the valid name Dendrocitta vagabunda pallida ( Blyth, 1846) , ZMB 2002.601 (see above).