NOVITATES ZOOLOGlCAi: XXV. 1918. 1& 



64. Melanocorypha arabs Brehm = Ammomanes deserti isabellina. 



Melanoeorypha arabs Brehm, Vogelfang, p. 122 (1855 — " Verirrt sioh aus dein steinigen Arabien 

 zuweilen naoh Europa "). 



Type: <J ad., Arabia Petraea, October 1851. A. B. 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 birds which were likely 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. 



65. Melanocorypha elegans Brehm = Ammomanes phoenicurus arenicolor. 

 Melanocorypha elegans Brehm, Vogelfang, p. 122 (1855 — 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 " <?." 



*66. Galerita nigricans Brehm = Galerida cristata nigricans. 



Qilerita nigricans Brehm, Vogelfang, p. 12.S (1855 — " In Agypten und Thuringen "). — Brehm gave 

 a description of the Egyptian subspeoie?, but he mixed up with it some Thuringian examples, 

 which look very difierent ; besides an Egyptian one, there are five Thuringian ones under the 

 name nigricans in the collection. 



Type : " (J ad.," Egypt, no exact locahty or date. 



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



cristata. 



Galeridi viarum Brehm, Handb. NdWrj. Voj. Deutschl. p. 315 (1831 — " Se lebt im nordwestlicheh 

 Deutschland, name^itlich ia Weitphalen, kommt im Winter auch bei Saalfeld vor "). 



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

 diese Subspecies auch im Winter nioht verlasst ; mein theurer Badeeker in Witten hatte di& 

 Giite, mir 4 alte Wxatervogel und ein Paar Gesohwister im Jugendkloide zu schicken. Die 

 Angabe, dass diese Gattang im Winter bei Saalfeld vorkomme, beruht auf einer Verweokselung 

 mit Oalerida major "). 



Type of G. viarum, 1831, and pagorum, 1841 : <? Witten a. d. Ruhr. F, W. J. 

 Badeker coll. 



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 Isis, 1841. pp. 124-128, and Naumannia, 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 pagorum of 1841, while his pagorum of 1858 (Naumannia, 1858. p. 207) 

 is evidently not the pagorum of 1841, and viarum of 1841 not the viarumoi 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 thiity years 

 ago near Witten and had probably migrated to Ostfriesland. 



