In search of elusive type specimens ... (1 Viewer)

Björn Bergenholtz · Apr 14, 2018

In trying to find the location of where different Type specimens (of various birds) are kept today, I have failed on (quite) a few ...

Hopefully anyone "out there" can help me out!?

So let´s start with bergii ...

Does anyone know the location of the type specimen of "Phasianus mongolicus bergii"* ZARUDNY 1914? That is; where the specimen itself is found today?

Does the OD, attached (in Russian), tell us where it was (and possibly still is) located?

Björn
__________________________________________________________
*most likely synonymous with the subspecies Phasianus colchicus turcestanicus LORENZ 1896.

mb1848 · Apr 14, 2018

Possibly here:
http://zool-col.uz/nuuz_b_e.html .

Björn Bergenholtz · Apr 14, 2018

Thanks for trying Mark, ... :t: ... but I don´t think (at least I´ve seen no indication that) it is present, today, in the ornithological collection of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology (National University of Uzbekistan).

On that same page we find two documents (to the right, upper corner): "Systematic list of species" and "Reference catalogue", which leads to:

Систематический список видов орнитологической коллекции Национального Университета Узбекистана

A systematic list of species in the ornithological collection of the National University of Uzbekistan

Click to expand...

Справочный каталог орнитологической коллекции Национального Университета Узбекистана

A reference catalogue of the ornithological collection of the National University of Uzbekistan

Click to expand...

And in those lists the only bergii specimen/species/bird is "No. 200. Sterna bergii* Licht., 1823 ...".

No sight of the (invalid) Pheasant subspecies "Phasianus mongolicus bergii" ZARUDNY 1914. That is, of course, without knowing if it´s found among the many specimens of No. 117. Phasianus colchicus ...

Anyone else who have any idea? Or have seen it mentioned somewhere?

Or maybe even know where it is?

Björn
____________________________________
*claimed to commemorate a completely different Mr. Bergius.

l_raty · Apr 14, 2018

I have no idea where the specimens may be lodged. (The description is clearly based on more than one individual; and the range is given as two islands.)

However, if I can be allowed a digression: I strongly suspect (and the footnote in your last post suggests) that your interest for this bird is rooted in it being said to be dedicated (e.g., the Key [here]) to the Swedish physician and botanist Prof. Peter Jonas Bergius (1730-1790).
The OD attached to your first post actually says otherwise:

Посвящаю этого фазана Льву Семеновичу Бергу, своими изследованиями составившему эру в наших познаниях Аральского моря.

...which is an explicit dedication to the Russian geographer, biologist and ichthyologist Lev (alt. 'Leo') Semyonovich Berg (1876-1950).

mb1848 · Apr 14, 2018

Mr. Dickinson in the SNAB series says: Balan (1966) reported that Zarudny named 238 new avian taxa and that 71 of these were represented by type material in the Department of Vertebrate Zoology,
Tashkent State University, Uzbekistan. Some of the many others may be in the
AMNH, New York or in Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan. Balan, P. M., 1966. Types of newly described birds of N.A. Zarudny’s collection. [In Russian.]: 107-121.— In: T.Z. Zakhidova. (ed.) Vertebrate animals of central Asia. (Pozvonochnie zhivotnye srednei Azii): 1-232. Tashkent. xx We cannot be certain of this as some of Zarudny’s types (yet to be reviewed) may now be in New York, having first been in the Rothschild Museum.

Björn Bergenholtz · Apr 14, 2018

l_raty said:
...
However, if I can be allowed a digression: I strongly suspect ...

Laurent, you saw through me, your digression is both allowed and justified ... true, my interest in this Pheasant was simply due to the fact that its scientific name is/was said, in various sources*, to commemorate the (for us in Sweden) fairly well-known Swedish physician, botanist and naturalist Dr. Peter Jonas Bergius (doctor's thesis for Linnaeus 1750, Professor at Collegium medicum 1761, etc., etc.), a claim that I was a bit leery of (as he died in 1790, one-hundred-twenty-four years pre-Zarudny's OD, not known for his travels, not specialized in Phasianidae, not ... and so on), thereby in need to be checked, confirmed and/or somehow understood.

But if the OD clearly tell us it´s aimed at the Russian geographer, biologist and ichthyologist Lev Semënovich Berg ... well ... end of my case. Suddenly I have no need what-so-ever to find the Type of Berg's Pheasant.

Trying to solve, confiming, checking (and understanding the synonymity of) all the birds commemorating Swedes, is a task big enough (without having to add any Russians).

THANKS for shortening my list! :t:

bergii ... (at least, as far as I am concerned) over and out!

Björn

PS. Another good thing is that I don´t have to ask for help with a full translation of the Russian OD.

PPS. And Mark, I should have started with the OD, as I/we usually do. Sorry for wasting your time, but many thanks for the effort.
______________________________________
*also earlier in the HBW Alive Key, updated a few hours ago.

l_raty · Apr 15, 2018

mb1848 said:
Balan, P. M., 1966. Types of newly described birds of N.A. Zarudny’s collection. [In Russian.]: 107-121.— In: T.Z. Zakhidova. (ed.) Vertebrate animals of central Asia. (Pozvonochnie zhivorlatetnye srednei Azii): 1-232. Tashkent.

Maybe it's not really useful any more, given the above; but, in case someone wants to try to locate this work at a later point, and as I looked it up anyway... The ref actually seems to be:

Балан Л.М. Типы новоописаний птиц коллекции Н.А. Зарудного. // Г.С. Султанов (отв. ред.). Позвоночные животные Средней Азии. (Сборник статей, посвященных 60-летию акад. АН УзССР Т.3. Захидова.) Ташкент, 1966.
(I.e.: Balan L.M. 1966. Types of newly-described birds of the collection of N.A Zarudny. In: G.S. Sultanov (ed.). Vertebrate animals of Central Asia. (Collection of papers, dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the academician of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbek SSR, T.Z. Zakhidov.) Tashkent.)

(The citation by Mlíkovský 2007 [here] is better than that in the SNAB. It's always a bit of a pain to try locating a Russian work from an approximative / partly inexact English citation...)

Björn Bergenholtz · Apr 29, 2018

Bergman's Nuthatch

Thereby, let us shift focus (to a bird definitely commemorating a Swedish guy) ...

So what about "Sitta europaea bergmani" MOMIYAMA 1931? A synonym of today's S. e. clara STEJNEGER 1887.

I asked my friend Nobuhiko Osawa to read the full OD (as parts of it is written in Japanese), but according to him there´s nothing indicating where the type/s were kept (and certainly not where it/they are located today

).

Anyone who know where to find this type (or types) ... ?

It could have, maybe, be found somewhere in the collections of YIO (Yamashina Institute for Ornithology), in Abiko City, Japan, where some (most?) of Momiyama's specimen ended up, but according to Dickinson et al. 2006* it was/is "Lost"!?

Anyone with knowledge otherwise?

Like these ones (here and/alt. here)? From the YIO collection (here).

Björn

PS. This bird/eponym was (most) recently dealt with in the thread; Questions on synonyms ... in today's; Neocossyphus, Sitta, and Milvus (here, posts #1,3-4), where excerpts (relevant parts) of the OD was attached. If of any help?

________________
*Dickinson, E. et al. Systematic notes on Asian birds. 66. Types of the Sittidae and Certhiidae. Zool. Med. [Zoologische Mededelingen] Leiden 80-5 (18), 21.xii.2006: 287-310. - ISSN 0024-0672. (here, on p.289)
--

Björn Bergenholtz · Apr 29, 2018

Does this paper (in German) Die Vögel der Kurilen (Birds of the Kurils), by Yamashina, from JfO 79 (4), 1931, tell us anything additional (p.505) ... ?

Looks like Okada's Paper in Sangaku 25 (3), p.78, from 1930, the single reference for Momiyama's bergmani (see attachments here), is just about hopeless to search for (on the internet), as the Japanese word Sangaku seems to be one of many words meaning Mountain!

Anyone who knows where to find it?

Simply getting tired of starring at Photos of Mount Fuji ...

dnsallen · Apr 29, 2018

Calalp said:
Thereby, let us shift focus (to a bird definitely commemorating a Swedish guy) ...

So what about "Sitta europaea bergmani" MOMIYAMA 1931? A synonym of today's S. e. clara STEJNEGER 1887.

I asked my friend Nobuhiko Osawa to read the full OD (as parts of it is written in Japanese), but according to him there´s nothing indicating where the type/s were kept (and certainly not where it/they are located today ).

Anyone who know where to find this type (or types) ... ?

It could have, maybe, be found somewhere in the collections of YIO (Yamashina Institute for Ornithology), in Abiko City, Japan, where some (most?) of Momiyama's specimen ended up, but according to Dickinson et al. 2006* it was/is "Lost"!?

Anyone with knowledge otherwise?

Like these ones (here and/alt. here)? From the YIO collection (here).

Björn

PS. This bird/eponym was (most) recently dealt with in the thread; Questions on synonyms ... in today's; Neocossyphus, Sitta, and Milvus (here, posts #1,3-4), where excerpts (relevant parts) of the OD was attached. If of any help?

________________
*Dickinson, E. et al. Systematic notes on Asian birds. 66. Types of the Sittidae and Certhiidae. Zool. Med. [Zoologische Mededelingen] Leiden 80-5 (18), 21.xii.2006: 287-310. - ISSN 0024-0672. (here, on p.289)
--

The type locality was Kunashir island in the southern Kurile islands. The specimen is presumed to have been lost in the war. It was in the Taka-Tsukasa collection. It seems to have been treated as Sitta europea clara in Okada (1930) Sangaku 25 (3) p25

Reference:
Types Of Japanese Birds. Morioka H., Dickinson, E. C., Hiraoka T., Allen D. & T. Yamasaki. 2005.3 National Science Museum Monographs No. 28.
National Science Museum, Tokyo. (p26)

Björn Bergenholtz · Apr 29, 2018

dnsallen said:
The type locality was Kunashir island in the southern Kurile islands. The specimen is presumed to have been lost in the war. It was in the Taka-Tsukasa collection. It seems to have been treated as Sitta europea clara in Okada (1930) Sangaku 25 (3) p25
...

Do they, Morioka et al, really claim "p25" ... ?!?

And not "p.78"?

dnsallen · Apr 29, 2018

Calalp said:
Do they, Morioka et al, really claim "p25" ... ?!?

And not "p.78"?

No, it is 78. 25 was my mistake |:S|

dnsallen · Apr 29, 2018

'Comments. No description was given by Momiyama (1931:20) but fig. C (p.20) and a reference to Okada (1930: Sangaku, 25 (3), p.78) where it was treated under the name Sitta europea (sic) clara.'

Björn Bergenholtz · Apr 30, 2018

"Sitta europaea bergmani" continuation ...

To me (with only meager understanding of German) the additional part, making me even more curious of what´s truly told in Momiyama's Paper, the one in JfO 1931, on top of what´s written on p.505, (link post #9), was the following phrases (from p.492):

... und auch der Schwede STEN BERGMAN, der vom Herbst 1929 bis zum Sommer 1930 auf den Südkurilen weilte, machte bei seiner Rückkehr nach Tokio eine Mitteilung über die Vögel der Kurilen bei der allgemeinen Versammlung der Japanischen Ornitho- logischen Gesellschaft im November. Danach ist das bereits fertige Manuskript noch weiter ergänzt worden.

Click to expand...

(Google Translate) ... and also the Swede STEN BERGMAN, who was on the Southern Kuril Islands from the autumn of 1929 to the summer of 1930, on his return to Tokyo made a statement about the birds of the Kuril Islands at the general assembly of the Japanese Ornithological Society in November. Thereafter, the already finished manuscript has been further supplemented.

Click to expand...

Couldn´t this be interpreted as an indication that Bergman was about to write a paper of his own? If so this could(!?!), possibly have resulted in the (this far unseen) paper quoted as "Bergman, Ark. f. Zool., 23 B, No. 3, 1931" (a paper, mentioned, for example; here).

If so(!) the specimen/s of Bergman's Nuthatch, collected in the Southern Kurils, by Bergman himself, most likely ended up in NRM Stockholm!

As did several other, many specimens, collected by Bergman, in the Kurils, 1929-30, like the White-backed woodpecker ssp., in the link above). And furthermore; if so I assume we can forget about the Nuthatches collected by Mr Okada [i.e. the ones from the collection of Taka-Tsukasa, the ones dealt with in the Japanese journal Sangaku 25, which was supposedly "Lost", or still present, possibly kept in YIO collection (see, for example the two specimens/links in post #8). The Okada bird/s might have nothing to do with Bergman (more than them being mentioned in Momiyama's OD of bergmani of 1931)].

A lot of ifs, at this point, I agree, mostly speculations, this far, but ... we´ll see.

I will check up whatever is written in the Swedish journal Arkiv för Zoologi 1931 ...

To be continued.

Björn

PS. Does anyone know what Momiyama's reference; "No.48, S. 156" in JfO (on p.505) stands for (alt. refer to)?

Mike Earp · Apr 30, 2018

Calalp said:
Does anyone know what Momiyama's reference; "No.48, S. 156" in JfO (on p.505) stands for (alt. refer to)?

Is it not a reference to page 156 in Y Yamashina's 1929 paper "On the Birds of Kuril Islands" in Tori volume 6?

l_raty · Apr 30, 2018

Mike Earp said:
Is it not a reference to page 156 in Y Yamashina's 1929 paper "On the Birds of Kuril Islands" in Tori volume 6?

That certainly seems correct, at least for the page number. [Here].

But: Is the name bergmani Momiyama really available? After 1930, a figure would not confer availability; you'd need "a description or definition that states in words characters that are purported to differentiate the taxon", or a bibliographic reference to such a statement. As Momiyama himself did not provide a description, it seems the only way the name could be available from his publication would be via a statement of the characters purported to differentiate the S Kuril population, that might possibly be found in Okada's paper, which he referenced. Is there such a statement?

Björn Bergenholtz · May 1, 2018

Thanks guys!

You´re both correct. See (the vertical, brief) attached excerpt, from Tori (Japanese Journal of Ornithology), vol. 6 (28); page 156.

Also see; Red'kin & Konovalova. 2006. The eastern Asiatic races of Sitta europaea. Zool. Med. Leiden 80, p.247 (here).

I´ll return when Arkiv för Zoologi is thoroughly checked (it´s in my files)!

Cheers!

Björn

PS. Laurent, the question of availability is beyond me. But still, in whatever value, commemorating Sten Bergman.

dnsallen · May 1, 2018

This seems to say that the specimen was from Urup island (now just over the border in Russia) and is unknown on any other island.

Björn Bergenholtz · May 1, 2018

Thanks, if from Urup Island (Уру́п alt. Uruppu-to) most likely equal of today's S. e. takatsukasai (simply based on range).

The search goes on.

dnsallen · May 1, 2018

得撫島 = Urup island
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urup

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