NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXV. 1918. '^'5 



64. Melanocorypha arabs Brehm = Ammomanes deserti isabellina. 



MeUinocorypha arabs Brehm, Vogeljawj, jj. 122 (1855 — '" Verirrt sieh aas dem steinigen Arabien 

 zuweilen uach Europa "). 



Type: cJ ad., Arabia Petraea, October 1851. A. E. Brehm leg. There 

 are now only two specimens in the collection, a male and a female. Brehm 

 apparently never saw a European specimen, but he merely imagined that the 

 Arabian bird might stray into Europe. In the Preface to the Vogelfang, p. vii., 

 the author said that he had included a number of bii-ds which were Ukely to 

 stray into Europe, so that a bird-catcher, who came across them, might know 

 them ; for, he said, he was convinced that the zeal with which ornithological 

 studies were pursued would lead to the admittance of many foreign birds into 

 th3 European fauna. 



6.5. Melanocorypha elegans Brehm = Ammomanes pfioenicurus arenicolor. ' 



Melanoconjpha elegans Brehm, Vogelfang, p. 122 (185.5 — Nubia). 



Type: $ ad., Abu-Hamed, Nubia, 30. viii. 1851. A. E. Brehm leg. 



This specimen being rather small, I have no doubt whatever that it is a 

 ?, and it was thus originally marked by A. E. Brehm, but for some reason, think- 

 ing he knew better, his father altered the sex-mark into " J." 



*66. Galerita nigricans Brehm = Galeridu cristata nigricans. 



Gihrita nijrirans Brehm, Vogelfang, p. 123 (1855 — " 111 Agypten und Thiirlugen "). — Brehm gave 

 a description of the Egyptian .subspecies, but he mixed up witli it some Thuringian examples, 

 wliich look very different ; besides an Egyptian one, there are five Thuringian ones under the 

 name nigricans in the collection. 



Type : " <J ad.," Egypt, no exact locality or date. 



67. Galerida viarum Brehm, 1831, and Galerida pagonim Brehm, 1841 = G. cristata 



cristata. 



Galeridi viarum Brehm, Handb. Nd'.urj. ]'6g. Deulscht. p. ,'J15 (1831 — "Se lebt im nordwestlichen 

 Deutschland, nameatlich in Weitphalen, kommt im Winter audi bei Saalfeld vor "). 



Galerida pagorum Brehm, Isis, 1841. pp. 123. 128 (" Lebt im nordwestlichen Deutschland, welches 

 diese iSubspecies auch im Winter aicht verlasst ; mein theurer Badecker in Witten hatte die 

 Giite, mir 4 alte Wintervo^el und ein Paar Ge,chvvister im Jugendklcide zu schicken. Ilie 

 Angnbe, dass diese Gattang im Winter bei SaalfelJ vorkorame, beruht auf einer Verweckseluiig 

 mit Galerida major"). 



Type of G. viarum, 1831, a,nd jmgorum , 1841 : cJ Witten a. d. Ruhr. F. W. J. 

 Badeker coU. 



Brehm very carefully studied the Crested Larks in his way ; besides the 

 review in the Handb. Nat. Vog. Deutschl. pp. 315. 316 (1831) he wrote fuller 

 treatises on them in Lsis, 1841. pp. 124-128, and Nanmannia, 1858. pp. 206-208. 

 In those times hardly anybody had, however, a real conception of strict priority 

 (against which short-sighted and inexperienced brother zoologists are still 

 agitating), and thus Brehm shifted the meaning of his names. His viarum of 

 1831 is his pftgorum. of 1841, while his pagorvm of 1858 {Naumannia, 1858. p. 207) 

 is evidently not the pagorum of 1841, and viarum of 1841 not the viarum of 1831 ; 

 while in 1831 it occurred near Witten, in 1841 he made it to inhabit the roads 

 between Leipzig and DeUtzsch, while in 1858 he said that it lived thi.ty years 

 ago near Witten and had probably migrated to Ostfriesland. 



