Corvus scapularis var. Aethiops Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833

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 : 31

Corvus scapularis var. Aethiops Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833 : fol. z (2nd page)

TL: Nubia et Dongola [Nubia and Dongola = Sudan], Habessinia litto [= Littoral Abyssinia], restricted to Arkiko, Eritrea [= Hargigo near Massawa, 15°29’N, 39°26’E] (see below).

Now Corvus albus x Corvus ( ruficollis ) edithae (hybrid) [ZMB 1479, 1480, 1481]. See Madge & Burn 1999: 177, Fry et al. 2000: 546. Sharpe 1877: 23 and Meinertzhagen 1926: 112 synonymized the name with Corvus albus Statius Müller, 1776 [this refers to sight records cited by Hemprich & Ehrenberg 1833, see below].

SYNTYPES: ZMB 1479. Adult [hybrid, no sex given]. Loc.: Abyssinien [= Arkiko, Eritrea]. Date: [not given; December 1824 – April 1825]. [Coll. Hemprich], Ex.Coll.: Hemprich & Ehrenberg. [Ex, Mus, A/R, Meise MS]. ZMB 1480. “Juvenile” [adult, hybrid, no sex given]. Loc.: Abyssinien [= Arkiko, Eritrea]. Date: [not given; December 1824 – April 1825]. [Coll. Hemprich], Ex.Coll.: Hemprich & Ehrenberg. [Ex, Mus, Meise MS]. ZMB 1481. [Adult, hybrid, no sex given]. Loc.: Abyssinien [= Arkiko, Eritrea]. Date: [not given; December 1824 – April 1825]. [Coll. Hemprich], Ex.Coll.: Hemprich & Ehrenberg. [Ex, Mus, Meise MS].

COMMENTS: One specimen is certainly and the two others arguably syntypes of the name Corvus phaeocephalus (see above). The original description of aethiops does not indicate the number of specimens consulted. However, three birds were entered in the Aves I register up until the end of the 19 th century, and the same three specimens are still housed in the bird department of the ZMB today. Dresser & Blanford (1874: 337), when working on Hemprich and Ehrenberg’s type material, also studied three syntypes of this name. The syntypes came, however, from coastal Abyssinia, i.e. Eritrea, rather than Nubia and Dongola , which are cited as additional localities in the original description. Those localities were based on sight records of purebred C. albus and have no validity for determining the type locality of the original description according to the ICZN (1999). The shipment lists for the 10th consignment include seven specimens of “ Corvus albicollis et var. nigra ” from Dhalak [Dhalak Archipelago] and Arkiko [Hargigo], coastal Eritrea, collected between December 1824 and July 1825, but only the “ var. nigra ” specimens are described in the original description of Corvus scapularis var. Aethiops . According to the correspondence of Hemprich and Ehrenberg cited in Stresemann (1954 b: 143), Hemprich collected 5 specimens of the variety in Arkiko before May 1825. Thus , the type locality can formally restricted to Arkiko = Hargigo near Massawa, Eritrea. Because the name was given to a hybrid population it is invalid for any further use in ornithological nomenclature ( ICZN 1999, arts. 1.3.3, 17.2, 23.8).