Emberiza subnivalis Brehm

LeCroy, Mary, 2012, Type Specimens Of Birds In The American Museum Of Natural History Part 10. Passeriformes: Emberizidae: Emberizinae, Catamblyrhynchinae, Cardinalinae, Thraupinae, And Tersininae, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2012 (368), pp. 1-125 : 10

Emberiza subnivalis Brehm Plectrophanes borealis Brehm

Emberiza subnivalis Brehm, 1826 : col. 929 ( Grönland, scheint dem islänischen sehr ähnlich).

Plectrophanes borealis Brehm, 1831: 305 ( Grönland, wahrscheinlich auch Island).

Now Plectrophenax nivalis nivalis (Linnaeus, 1758) . See Hartert, 1918: 17, Salomonsen, 1931a: 57–58, Vaurie, 1956b: 25, and Dickinson, 2003: 781.

LECTOTYPE of both names: AMNH 456311 , adult male, collected in Greenland, on 15 June 1822. From the Brehm Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: In the original description of subnivalis, Brehm said: ‘‘Ein Männchen im Herbstkleide aus Island stimmt mit den 3 grönländlichen meiner Sammlung vollformen überein….’’ In this case, Hartert (1918: 17, footnote) expressed no doubt that this one male specimen collected on 15 June 1822 was the type of both E. subnivalis and Plectrophanes borealis , thereby designating it the lectotype of both names.

There are two paralectotypes in AMNH: AMNH 456312 , female, Greenland, 30 October 1822 ; and AMNH 456314 , adult male, Iceland, 20 September 1823. This specimen from Iceland is from the range of P. nivalis insulae Salomonsen, 1931 . AMNH 456313 , female from Greenland, may be the third Greenland specimen and a paralectotype, but the Brehm label is missing and there is no date on the Rothschild label .