Trochalopteron hennickei 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 : 62

Trochalopteron hennickei Pražák

Trochalopteron hennickei Pražák, 1897c: 328 (Orn. Mschr.)

Remarks. Pražák (1897c: 328) said that he based this form on the holotype (JPPH 18720) and two paratypes (both in JPPH, no accession or inventory numbers given), all adult males collected by Mr. W. Jaworowski on 26 August 1896 at the outflow of the “Yuen” [= Yuan] River in the “Tungting See” [= Dongting Lake], Hunan Province, China. There is no evidence that Pražák received these specimens from W. Jaworowski (who existed probably only in Pražák’s mind) or from anybody else, and there is no evidence that the holotype and paratypes of T. hennickei Pražák existed. I thus consider Trochalopteron hennickei Pražák a hypothetical form (see also Hartert 1909: 629, footnote), whose name has no standing in zoological nomenclature (Art. 1.3.1 of the Code). In inventing this species, Pražák (1897c) might have been inspired by descriptions and/or illustrations of Trochalopteron cinereiceps Styan (1887: 166, pl. 6) [= Garrulax cineraceus cinereiceps (Styan) ] and Trochalopteron sukatschewi Berezovskǐj & Bianki (1891 : 59, pl. 1, fig. 1; Deditius 1897: 67) [= Garrulax sukatschewi (Berezovskĭj & Bianki) ], which he cited. Oustalet (1898: 254) believed that T. hennickei is a valid species, but remarked that specimens agreeing with Pražák’s (1897c) description were unknown to him.