Cyanopica cyanus kansuensis Meise, 1937 : 452

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 : 13

Cyanopica cyanus kansuensis Meise, 1937: 452

TL: Desen-laka unweit des Tetung-ho [Datong He, South Daban Shan, Qinghai, China; c. 36°– 37°N, 101°E].

Now Cyanopica cyanus kansuensis Meise, 1937 . See Vaurie 1959: 147, Blake & Vaurie 1962: 245 [ C. cyana kansuensis ], Madge & Burn 1999: 111 [ C. cyana kansuensis ], Dickinson 2003: 509, Dickinson et al. 2004b: 117.

HOLOTYPE: ZMB 35.263. Adult male. Loc.: Desen-laka unweit des Tetung-ho [see type locality]. Date: 21 March 1928. Coll.: W. Beick No. 734. [S, Beick label, Meise MS].

PARATYPES: ZMB 35.261. Adult male. Loc.: Desen-laka unweit des Tetung-ho. Date: 21 March 1928. Coll.: W. Beick No. 737. [S, Beick label]. ZMB 35.264. Adult male. Loc.: Desen-laka unweit des Tetung-ho. Date: 21 March 1928. Coll.: W. Beick No. 736. [S, Beick label]. ZMB 35.262. Immature female. Loc.: Hung-ho-siae [in Qinghai, China]. Date: 13 June 1928. Coll.: W. Beick No. 903. [S, Beick label].

COMMENTS: See David & Gosselin (2002: 39) for the spelling correction: the name cyanus is the latinized Greek noun kuanos (a blue substance), and as such is invariable ( ICZN 1999, articles 31.2.1., 32.3, 34.2.1). Originally Meise (1937) referred to an additional four specimens. Except for a male, formerly ZMB 35.260, from Hu-dja-dschuang, which was exchanged with SMTD, now registered C.33531 ( Eck & Quaisser 2004: 284), none of the other paratypes had been registered with the ZMB collection. After ZMB acquisition, but before registration, they went directly to the AMNH. Each of the AMNH specimens has a blank ZMB label with the name written on it, presumably by Meise: AMNH 423359, (adult) male, Desen-laka, 21 March 1928, W. Beick No. 735; AMNH 423360, (?immature) female, Lau-hu-kou, 13 December 1926, W. Beick No. 282; AMNH 423361, (adult) female, Hu-dja-dschuang, 29 January 1932, W. Beick No. 2801. On 21st March 1928, the collecting date of the holotype, two of the ZMB and one of the AMNH paratypes, Beick wrote in his diary that he went bird collecting in dense scrub along the river shores, shooting these four specimens of Cyanopica cyanus , subsequently numbering them 734–737 (Beick MS, ZMB Ornithological Dept 336.2).