Tanagra superciliaris Wied

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 : 56-57

Tanagra superciliaris Wied

Tanagra superciliaris Wied, 1830: 518 (Campo Geral) .

Now Saltator similis similis Lafresnaye and d’Orbigny, 1837 . See Hellmayr, 1938: 14–16, Dickinson, 2003: 825.

SYNTYPE: AMNH 6768, male [female], collected at Campo Geral, Brazil, undated, by Maximilian, Prince of Wied. From the Maximilian Collection.

COMMENTS: When Allen (1889b: 221) listed the Wied types in AMNH, he listed two syntypes and commented: ‘‘The original description appears to have been based on a female and a young male. Of the former he says (Beitr., p. 520): ‘Auch das oben beschriebene Weibchen schien noch nicht sein vollkommenes Gefieder zu tragen,’ which seems to apply well to the bird given above as No. 6768.’’ The specimen is in very worn plumage. Allen (1889b: 221) published it as a female adult even though the Wied label pasted to the back of the AMNH type label identified it as a male. The specimen was formerly mounted.

The second syntype, AMNH 6863, not marked in the AMNH catalog as a type, was exchanged to USNM and numbered USNM 76791. An unsexed, mounted specimen, it was destroyed in 1940, probably either as a result of insect infestation or extreme deterioration (James Dean, personal commun.).

Wied’s name, Tanagra superciliaris , is a primary homonym of Tanagra superciliaris Spix, 1825 . As such, Wied’s name is permanently invalid (ICZN, 1999: 59, Art. 57.2) and is replaced by the next oldest name among the synonyms (ICZN, 1999: 26, Art. 23.3.5), Saltator similis Lafresnaye and d’Orbigny, 1837 .

Paynter and Traylor (1991) thought it probable that the Campo Geral referred to by Allen (1889b: 221) was Serra Geral, on the Minas Gerais / Bahia border at 15.25S, 42.48W.