Nucifraga relicta Reichenow, 1889 : 288

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 : 23

Nucifraga relicta Reichenow, 1889: 288

TL: Alpen [European Alps]; here restricted to Bosnia-Herzegovina (see below).

Now Nucifraga caryocatactes caryocatactes (Linnaeus, 1758) . See Meise MS, Hartert 1903: 25. Blake & Vaurie 1962: 256 did not account for Reichenow’s name.

SYNTYPES: ZMB 30882 [individual acquisition on arrival B. 21230]. Juvenile male. Loc.: Dovliči , Trebević, Bosnien [Dovliči near Sarajevo, Bosnia; 43°49’N, 18°29’E]. Date: 15 August 1887. Coll. O. Reiser. [S, Reiser label, Meise MS]. ZMB 2002.602 [new registration, individual acquisition on arrival B. 21231]. Juvenile female. Loc.: Igman, Pl. Póliza, Strasse nach Konjica, Bosnien [= road to Konjic, Bosnia; c. 43°39’N, 17°59’E]. Date: 25 June 1888. Coll. O. Reiser. [S, Reiser label, Meise MS]. ZMB 2002.603 [new registration, individual acquisition on arrival B. 21229]. Female. Loc.: Vučija Luka bei Sarajevo, Bosnien [= Vucija Luka, Bosnia; c. 43°51’N, 18°25’E]. Date: August 1888. Coll. O. Reiser. [S, Reiser label, Meise MS].

COMMENTS: Reichenow (1889) unfortunately did not comment on which specimens he had based his new European form of Nutcracker. Therefore it is assumed that any ZMB specimen of Nucifraga c. caryocatactes collected in the Alps and adjacent mountain regions to the southeast (South Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina), that was present in the collection prior to the publication date of July 1889 would have the status of a syntype. Four specimens fulfill such a criterion. Reichenow himself added the new name in red ink to the labels of these specimens, providing additional evidence that he had studied them. All four came from the mountains of Bosnia-Herzegovina; thus the vague original type locality can formally be restricted to the mountain range of central Bosnia-Herzegovina. For more information on this population see Reiser 1939 (pp. 128–133). The B-catalogue signs out B. 21230 to Jablonski on 10 July 1890: “ Vertauscht an M. Jablonski.” This must be an error as the specimen is still in the ZMB collection. ZMB 29770 and ZMB 29771 from Bucsum , Hungary [outside the core Alpine range], which had been acquired from the Linnaea stores, arrived too late to be included in the original description of Reichenow (collected in October 1887 and October 1889, respectively, the latter three months after the original description had been published).