Corvus montanus C.L. Brehm

Lecroy, Mary, 2014, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 12. Passeriformes: Ploceidae, Sturnidae, Buphagidae, Oriolidae, Dicruridae, Callaeidae, Grallinidae, Corcoracidae, Artamidae, Cracticidae, Ptilonorhynchidae, Cnemophilidae, Paradisaeidae, And Corvidae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2014 (393), pp. 1-165 : 134

Corvus montanus C.L. Brehm

Corvus montanus C.L. Brehm, 1831: 165 (Er bewohnt die deutschen Alpen, z.B. die tyroler).

Now Corvus corax corax Linnaeus, 1758 . See Hartert and Kleinschmidt, 1901: 40; Hartert, 1918a: 7; Blake and Vaurie, 1962: 279–280; Dickinson, 2003: 514–515; and dos Anjos, 2009: 638–639.

LECTOTYPE: AMNH 674865 , adult female, collected in the Tirol, Austria, on 10 May 1827. From the Brehm Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: No type was designated in the original description. Hartert and Kleinschmidt (1901: 40) listed the female specimen labeled montanus by Brehm and collected on 10 May 1827 in the Tirol as the type, thereby designating it the lectotype. This specimen is annotated ‘‘3b’’ on the reverse of Brehm’s label, the annotation corresponding to the number given it by Hartert and Kleinschmidt. This is confirmed by Hartert (1918a: 7). Two other specimens were listed by Hartert and Kleinschmidt (1901: 40) as montanus . Their number ‘‘3a’’ is on the reverse of Brehm’s label for AMNH 674863, female, collected in Freiburg, Switzerland, on 3 October 1859; this specimen cannot be part of Brehm’s type series of montanus , as it was collected after the name was introduced. Their number ‘‘3c’’ is the specimen they listed as having Brehm’s label missing. It is now AMNH 674864, and the reverse of the Rothschild label is marked ‘‘3c.’’ Hartert and Kleinschmidt (1901: 40) remarked that the specimen was remarkably similar to their specimens ‘‘3a’’ and ‘‘b.’’ It is similar in make to ‘‘3a’’ and may have been collected by Olphe Gaillard, as they thought, but because Brehm’s label is missing, there is no information on when it was collected. It is also not considered a paralectotype.

There is, however, a fourth specimen of montanus , now AMNH 674882, which has been included in the AMNH type collection because it bears an orange label from the Kleinschmidt Collection, marked ‘‘Vermutlich Typus von Corvus montanus (C.L. Brm.) .’’ This specimen had also lacked an original Brehm label, and Kleinschmidt’s Collection label is so annotated. A separate label had been found and attached to the specimen that apparently belonged with it, as both the right leg of the specimen and the label had been similarly damaged by insects. Brehm’s label identifies it as montanus , a juvenile, collected at Gastein, on 29 July 1826. No juvenile was mentioned in the original description nor the locality Gastein, so there is no reason to consider type status for this specimen. It remains in the AMNH type collection because it was so cataloged when the Rothschild Collection came to AMNH, but a label has been attached to indicate that it has no type status.