Carduelis elegans alpestris Pražák

Mlíkovský, Jiří, 2011, Nomenclatural and taxonomic status of bird taxa (Aves) described by an ornithological swindler, Josef Prokop Pražák (1870 – 1904), Zootaxa 3005, pp. 45-68 : 55

Carduelis elegans alpestris Pražák

[ Carduelis elegans ] alpestris Pražák, 1894d: 84 .

NOW. Carduelis carduelis carduelis (Linnaeus, 1758) . See Hartert (1903: 67).

Remarks. Carduelis carduelis was a popular cage bird in Bohemia and local bird catchers distinguished several varieties according to minute differences in plumage coloration, body size, song or habitat preferences (e.g. Šír 1890: 109–110). Pražák (1894d: 83–84) provided scientific names for three of these varieties, including smallish, plain-colored garden birds ( hortensis ), largish birds breeding outside of villages ( sylvestris ), and brightly colored, good singing birds, believed to breed mainly at higher elevations ( alpestris ). Pražák (1894d: 83–84) provided descriptions for these three forms, which he called “gute Subspecies” (“good subspecies”) ( Pražák 1894d: 82). In consequence, all these names are available for nomenclatural purposes, although Pražák (1894d) did not specify their type series.

Pražák (1894d: 84) did not specify the type locality of C. e. alpestris , but listed examples of localities where these birds were common. All of these localities lie within Bohemia and I thus consider Bohemia as the type locality of Carduelis elegans alpestris Pražák. Hartert (1903: 67) incorrectly said that Pražák (1894d) described this form as Fringilla alpestris .