Corvus, M. H. C. Lichtenstein, 1823: 20, 1758

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 : 26

C. [Corvus] capensis M. H. C. Lichtenstein, 1823: 20

TL: [not given]; restricted to Cape of Good Hope ( Blake & Vaurie 1962: 267); here formally restricted to Uitenhage [near Port Elisabeth, South Africa; 33°46’S, 25°25’E] (see below).

Now Corvus capensis capensis M. H. C. Lichtenstein, 1823 . See Meinertzhagen 1926: 91, Madge & Burn 1999: 148, Dickinson 2003: 513. Sharpe 1877: 12, and Blake & Vaurie 1962: 267, treated the species as monotypic.

SYNTYPES: ZMB 1490. [No sex or age given]. Loc.: Zondagsrivier [Sundays River, Eastern Cape, South Africa]. Date: [not given, 1816–1819 in Stresemann 1954c: 77]. Coll.: Mund. [Ex, Mus]. ZMB 1491. [No sex or age given]. Loc.: Uitenhage [near Port Elisabeth, South Africa; 33°46’S, 25°25’E]. Date: [April–June 1822 according to Stresemann on label]. Coll.: Krebs. [Ex, Mus, Meise MS]. ZMB 1492. [No sex or age given]. Loc.: Kaffernland [= Tembu- and Pondoland]. Date: [not given]. Coll.: Krebs. [Ex, Mus].

COMMENTS: No locality was given in the original description, so that one may assume that any ZMB specimen of appropriate age from the Cape region could be considered a syntype. Ludwig Krebs (1795–1844) settled in Uitenhage near Port Elisabeth , South Africa. Between 1820 and 1839 he forwarded more than 3000 bird skins to the ZMB ( Gebhardt 1964). Specimen ZMB 1491 was included in Krebs’ 7th shipment sent in July 1822 from the Sundays River , consisting of specimens collected at that site and Uitenhage, Eastern Cape Province, between April and June 1822. The other bird collected by Krebs came from a later shipment (probably 12, sent from Grahamstown ), and was collected in “Kaffernland” [= Tembu- and Pondoland] between February 1826 and November 1829 ( Stresemann 1954c: 80–81). The type locality is herewith formally restricted to Uitenhage, near Port Elisabeth , Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Many of Krebs’ original specimens were later exchanged or sold for desiderata of the ZMB and are nowadays dispersed in many European museums. It cannot be said whether there were further types among these specimens. Leopold Mund was a pharmacist, who actively collected birds in South Africa between 1816–1827 (correspondence Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Bestand Kultusministerium, Signatur Rep. 76 v c, Sektion 1, Tit. XII, No. 35, vol. I 1816 –22, vol. II 1822 –27).