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Augusto/Auguste di/de Beauharnais … and his Aracari (1 Viewer)

Björn Bergenholtz

Björn Bergenholtz

(former alias "Calalp")
Sweden
Auguste de Beauharnais … and his Aracari

From our (Mother) Forum "Bird Taxonomy and Nomenclature", today's thread Curl-crested Aracari (here).

Wright, R.. 2015.The Correct Name of the Curl-crested Aracari (Pteroglossus beauharnaisii) and the Date of Its Publication. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 127(3):547-549.

Suddenly an attempt to change the currently known Pteroglossus beauharnaesii WAGLER 1832 into Pteroglossus beauharnaisii WAGLER 1831!?

It made me somewhat curious on this bird:

● the (Beauharnaisius) Pteroglossus "beauharnaisii" by Wagler (1831, here, p.270) as "Pteroglossus Beauharnaisii" [in Fraktur letters, but does the Code accept such?] and as "Pt. [Pteroglossus] Beauharnaesii" (same Author 1832, here, in Latin letters, Column 280), later (in English) a k a Curl-crested Araçari alt. ditto Aracari or Curl-crested Toucanet.

However, either way it´s commemorating: the French-German Noble Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais (1810–1835), 2nd Duke of Leuchtenberg, (2nd) Prince of Eichstätt, Grand Duke of Frankfurt, "Fürst von Venedig", Duke of Santa Cruz, etc. etc. and on top of that; Prince consort of Maria II (Queen Mary II) of Portugal, collector and patron of the sciences. Born in Milan (Milano), Italy, ... and so on.

In other languagues a k a, for example; (in Italian) Augusto Carlo Eugenio Napoleone di Beauharnais, (in Portuguese) Augusto Carlos Eugênio Napoleão de Beauharnais and (in Swedish) August Karl Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais av Leuchtenberg.

Choose whatever spelling that fits your specific language. He´s not hard to find "out there".
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Fraktur is but a typeface of the Latin alphabet, and I know of nothing in the Code that would make a name proposed in any particular typeface invalid for this reason.

(However, a name that could be inferred to be vernacular might presumably be interpreted as not having been used as a valid scientific name, making it unavailable. Here, Wagler [or his editor...?] made a rather confusing mixed use of Gothic and Roman scripts, apparently sticking to Gothic in the text even for scientific names, but using Roman wherever a name appeared in parentheses. Possibly all the Gothic script in this work was interpreted as being "German"...?)


incidentally, this does not seem to be the only "unrecorded" name in this text. On the previous page, you can read (all Fraktur as well):
Ganz vorzüglich interessirte mich eine neue Vogelsippe, welche in Südamerika die dort fehlende Sippe Colaris (Cuv.) zu repräsentiren scheint. Der Vogel ist von der Große einer Amsel, einfarbig schwarz mit Ausnahme eines großen goldgelben Fleckens auf den Schwungfedern und des rothen Schnabels. Diese Sippe nannte der Hr. Herzog Coraphos (Κοραφος, ein gewisser Vogel bei Hesychius und Varinus), die Gattung: C. chrysopterus.​
I only found Coraphos Wagler cited from Isis 25(1832):53, where it is a nomen nudum ([Richmond index]; [Sherborn]); I could not trace the specific name chrysopterus in nomenclators at all. But here the species is described, readily identifiable from the description, and both names should consequently be available. Albeit of course invalid, being in the synomymy of Tijuca atra Férussac 1829.
 
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Could it be that it is because Das Ausland - Ein Tagblatt für Kunde des geistigen und sittlichen Lebens der Völker seems more daily newspaper than a scientific publication?
 
Taphrospilus said:
Could it be that it is because Das Ausland - Ein Tagblatt für Kunde des geistigen und sittlichen Lebens der Völker seems more daily newspaper than a scientific publication?
Click to expand...
Yes, this is plausible as well. The journal doesn't appear to be cited on Zoonomen at all, which suggests that none of the bird names that are in use currently is regarded as having been made available in it: it may be that there was a consensus not to regard it as a valid publication.
But, on the other hand, is [this] really "more" a scientific publication...?

Of course, if the journal as a whole has been deliberately set aside up to now, deeming its content validly published might produce other surprises...
 
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Just to underline my previous comment Charles Walter De Vis wrote in other context here:

Unfortunately, Macleay failed to observe the rule which strictly requires that a new name shall be announced in a publication addressed in the scientific world.
Click to expand...

So there seems too be a rule in the Code about valid publication organs.
 
Taphrospilus said:
So there seems too be a rule in the Code about valid publication organs.
Click to expand...
I know little of the nomenclature of extinct Marsupials, but Macleay's Zygomaturus is currently treated as valid. Thus the opinion expressed there by De Vis seems not to be accepted nowadays. (Or was De Vis wrong that Macleay's name had only been published in the Sydney Morning Herald"?)

What the Code says is this:

8.1. Criteria to be met. A work must satisfy the following criteria:
---8.1.1. it must be issued for the purpose of providing a public and permanent scientific record,
---8.1.2. it must be obtainable, when first issued, free of charge or by purchase, and
---8.1.3. it must have been produced in an edition containing simultaneously obtainable copies by a method that assures
------8.1.3.1. numerous identical and durable copies (see Article 8.4), or
------8.1.3.2. widely accessible electronic copies with fixed content and layout.

...The critical article being 8.1.1: one might certainly interpret a newspaper as being issued only for a short-term purpose of recent news dissemination, hence not "for the purpose of providing a public and permanent scientific record". Or not...? ;)
 
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Pteroglossus beauharnaisii (here) in J. Gould's Monographie der Ramphastiden oder Tukanartigen Voegel a k a "Herzog von Leuchtenberg's Arassari" (Duke von Leuchtenberg's Araçari)

Note that the publication "das Ausland" is called an "Unterhaltungsblatte" (Entertainment rag?) on the following page (however, the year "1830" is obviously wrong as No. 118, the one we´ve been looking at, is dated "28 April 1831").

And the Herzog/Duke von Leuchtenberg is still the same guy as in Post #1. ;)

Björn

PS. According to the Richmond card (here) this species got the (today invalid) Generic name Beauharnasius in the second edition "1954" [alt. (here) Beauharnesius by Bonaparte, same year].
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Calalp said:
Note that the publication "das Ausland" is called an "Unterhaltungsblatte" (Entertainment rag?) on the following page (however, the year "1830" is obviously wrong as No. 118, the one we´ve been looking at, is dated "28 April 1831").
Click to expand...
Note that Gould himself did not use this name at all: it was introduced by JHCF Sturm, the German editor of the translation. See the footnote on the first text page:
In Gould's Monographie ist diese Art als Pteroglossus ulocomus aufgeführt. St.
​
And then on the next page, below the synonymy:
Nach diesem Exemplare theilte der selige Professor Wagler in der Isis a.a.O. die Charaktere dieser Art mit, und legte ihr den gefeierten Familiennamen des Herrn Herzogs bei, der das erste Exemplar dieses Vogels nach Europa gebracht hatte. Gould kannte aber Wagler's Bekanntmachung dieser Art in der Isis nicht, und zeigte unsern Vogel in der Sitzung der zoologischen Gesellschaft zu London am 15. März 1833 vor, wo er ihm den Namen Pt. ulocomus gab, vor welchem jedoch der Wagler'sche als der frühere den Vorzug verdient.​
From this comment, it is also clear that what the writer identified as the publication that gave Wagler's name its precedence, was the work published in Isis, not that in Das Ausland, even though he had just listed the latter first in his synonymy.

(Thus Martin seems correct that Das Ausland was not regarded as a possible support for the introduction of a new name. If so, before it is accepted that Wagler's name dates from its publication there, it might be a good thing to have the whole journal screened for other possible new names... This is potentially a highly disruptive move.)
 
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AOU-SACC Proposal #691 (Pacheco, Nov 2015), here:
… Pteroglossus beauharnaesii was described by Johann Georg Wagler in honor to Prince August Karl Eugen Napoleon Beauharnais (1810-1835), duke of Leuchtenberg. …
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Pacheco apparently favours the German spelling, but I think the French version; Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais (1810–1835) is more correct (see Post #1), 2nd Duke of Leuchtenberg, (2nd) Prince of Eichstätt, and so on …

Don´t hesitate to prove me wrong!

Also see the on-going thread Curl-crested Aracari in the Bird Taxonomy and Nomenclature Forum, here.

Cheers

Björn

PS. I assume this also applies for the invalid Generic name Beauharnaisius.
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