Pyrrhocorax alpinus var. digitata, W.Hemprich, Ehrenberg & C G, 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 : 24

Pyrrhocorax alpinus var. digitata [sic] Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833: fol. z (2nd page)

TL: Syria: montis Libani [Mountains of Lebanon; sight observations ascribed to lower Sinai and Egypt]; restricted to Lebanon ( Vaurie 1959: 163).

Now Pyrrhocorax graculus digitatus Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833 . See Vaurie 1959: 163, Blake & Vaurie 1962: 260, Madge & Burn 1999: 132, Dickinson 2003: 512.

SYNTYPE: ZMB 1575. [No sex or age given]. Loc.: Bischerra [=? Bcharre, Lebanon; 34°15’N, 36°01’E]. Date: [not given; in Stresemann 1954 b: 171: 18 May to 6 August 1824]. Coll. Hemprich & Ehrenberg [No. 573]. [Ex, Mus, Meise MS].

COMMENTS: Hemprich & Ehrenberg (1833) referred to two specimens. Only one of the syntypes was registered at ZMB and was studied by Dresser & Blanford in 1874 (page 337). The second specimen was probably sold by Lichtenstein. Expected purchasers might have been RMNH (no specimen listed in Dekker & Quaisser 2006), MHH (no specimen listed in Quaisser & Nicolai 2006), or NMW (no Pyrrhocorax graculus of Hemprich & Ehrenberg traced in collection, nor any listed in Ehrenberg’s correspondence, in the NMW acquisition and register books; E. Bauernfeind, in litt. 5 August 2008).