Dryoscopus major Casatii Hartlaub

LeCROY, M. A. R. Y., 2003, TYPE SPECIMENS OF BIRDS IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. PART 5. PASSERIFORMES: ALAUDIDAE, HIRUNDINIDAE, MOTACILLIDAE, CAMPEPHAGIDAE, PYCNONOTIDAE, IRENIDAE, LANIIDAE, VANGIDAE, BOMBYCILLIDAE, DULIDAE, CINCLIDAE, TROGLODYTIDAE, AND MIMIDAE, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 278 (278), pp. 1-156 : 98

Dryoscopus major Casatii Hartlaub

Dryoscopus major Casatii Hartlaub, 1889: 117 (Djanda) .

Now Laniarius ferrugineus major (Hartlaub, 1848) . See Neumann, 1899: 406, and Fry et al., 2000: 454.

? SYNTYPES: AMNH 662532, adult male, collected on 26 August 1882, and AMNH 622533, adult female, collected on 22 August 1882, both at Djanda, 03°35′N, 30°55′E ( Chapin, 1954: 658), Sudan, by Emin Pasha. From the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Hartlaub (1887: 320) listed a male and a female of Dryoscopus aethiopicus collected on 22 September [1882] at Djanda by Emin Pasha, and later he ( Hartlaub, 1889: 117) described Dryoscopus major Casatii , based on the material referred to in his 1887 paper. He did not designate a type, saying that both sexes showed ‘‘Die schöne schwach lilabräunlich angeflogene Isabellfarbe der Unterseite... ’’. Measurements, however, were given for only one individual. My measurement of the wing of the above male specimen agrees exactly with the measurement given by Hartlaub (97 mm).

Most of the types of forms described by Hartlaub that were based on specimens in Emin Pasha’s first three collections came to AMNH with the Rothschild Collection, but Emin Pasha specimens have been distributed to a number of museums. Dr. P.R. Becker (personal commun.) and Dr. Herbert Schifter (personal commun.) tell me that there are no Emin Pasha specimens of this form in Bremen or Vienna. Because there were apparently only two specimens collected, it seems likely that there was an error in the dates Hartlaub (1887: 320) listed, and that the above two specimens are syntypes of D. m. Casatii. However, there remains the possibility that specimens bearing the date listed by Hartlaub will be found in another museum.

Neither of the above specimens bears a Rothschild type label and Hartert did not mention this taxon in any of his type lists. Only the above male bears an AMNH type label. However, because no type was designated and both sexes were described, both specimens should be considered syntypes. I have added a type label to the female, whose wing I measure as 94 mm. I have been unable to find any mention of this taxon in the literature other than in Neumann (1899: 406), where it is synonymized with Laniarius aethiopicus major .