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AOS citation problem for M. deglandi (1 Viewer)

mb1848

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Ornithologie européenne, ou Catalogue analytique et raisonné des oiseux observés en Europe. Degland 1849.
Species 484: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/50452#page/484/mode/1up .
Selys-Longchamps was a subscriber: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/50448#page/12/mode/1up .
1844 Degland Catalogue ornithology.
Memoires de la Société (Royale) des sciences, de l'agriculture et des arts à Lille .
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/23028#page/99/mode/1up .
AOS says Oedemia deglandi Bonaparte, 1850, Revue critique de l’ornithologie Européenne Degland, p. 108.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/48001#page/116/mode/1up .
On p. 108 it does not say Oedemia deglandi as the AOS believes. It says d’Oidemia deglandi but the I in the genus name is a L'Accent Tréma or “diaeresis” it tells the reader that the o and I have their own sound and not pronounced together. This is not Latin but French. The document is presented as a letter from Bonaparte to de Selys-Longchamps so is more informal? O. Des Murs also published a critique of Degland’s work published in a Belgian journal in 1850. When I find it I hope O.Des Murs talks about sp. 484 and gives it a Latin name. Oidemia Fleming 1822 Oedemia is Sundevall 1873 and Brehm 1855. “ A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 163 oidemia, Gr. olòmua, Lat. oedema, swelling, referring to the knob on the bill “
 
Mark, shouldn't you have posted this thread in the Bird Taxonomy and Nomenclature forum?

Very little influence on the Etymology itself (or?) ... ;)

Anyhow; O. Des Murs published a Review of Degland's work in (the French) Revue et magasin de zoologie pure et appliquée (in May 1850), here (all in French), however no "Sp. 484" mentioned [nor any " Fuligule brune.— Fuligula fusca."] (as of pp.472-474, your first link).

If of any help?

Björn

PS. If Des Murs also published a similar piece, in a Belgian journal is all unknown to me.
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Oedemia is an emendation by Strickland 1841 (commenting on Gray's 1840 Genera of birds): https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2314708
In early AOU check-lists, the citation of deglandi was correct, for what it's worth. (And Oidemia Fleming was used as the generic name for this bird.) But subsequently, subspecies were dropped (and Oidemia replaced by Melanitta Boie), so that in the more recent editions there is no citation at all.)

The diaeresis was presumably there only as an indication for French readers that they were not supposed to pronounce the name "Wademia" as if it had been French.
 
Isn't it even a question if Melanitta deglandi is a valid name or at least if the name can be associated with Bonaparte, 1850? I agree that the way Bonaparte wrote it might not be a scientific name. Or did he use deglandi in scientific name in another publication?
 
I don't really see any difference between how he wrote French and scientific names. Most of the time, he used italics for bird names, irrespective of them being French or Latin. He used small capitals typically for Latin generic names, in headers or the first time such a name was mentioned. In parallel to this, he also used both italics and small caps just to make some parts of his French text that he judged important stand out. (E.g., "groupes principaux ÉTABLIS PAR LUI dans son système conciliateur"; "me paraît rigoureux."; etc.). The small caps (rather than italics) in the case of the scoter may have been because he regarded the name as new, and wanted to give it more importance than to other bird names...?

Anyway, there is really no way that "Oïdemia deglandi", be it with a diaeresis, could be a French vernacular. (His vernacular for the group here was Maquereuses (still the French name of Scoters nowadays, but spelled "macreuses", and of course usually not italicized); "deglandi" is an obvious latinized genitive, not at all viable in a French name -- in French it would have been "Maquereuse Degland" or "Maquereuse de Degland".)

Bonaparte did not describe the bird here, but Degland did, and Bonaparte referred to his description explicitly; this is enough to make the name available.

(I think the next use of the name was in Comptes-Rendus, 38: 664, in 1854. But this would then be after Proc. Phila., 5: 126 (published 1851), where Cassin named the same bird Oidemia velvetina.)
 
Thanks Björn for finding the O. Des Murs article. And thank you to Martin and Laurent for a satisfying answer to the problem.
 
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