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Message: <blockquote data-quote="l_raty" data-source="post: 3134298" data-attributes="member: 24811">A few additional ragtag notes. Comments/suggestions certainly welcome. (But it's really, really a mess... :smoke<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />Anas fabalis Latham, 1787. [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/103199#page/335/mode/1up" target="_blank">OD</a>].Based on:- "Synopsis VI, p. 464" = <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/123874#page/166/mode/1up" target="_blank">Latham 1785: 464</a>, which additionally refers to "Arct. Zool. N° 462.", errore pro N° 472. = <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/55554#page/394/mode/1up" target="_blank">Pennant 1785: 546</a>;- "Br. Zool. II, N° 267" = <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/127014#page/235/mode/1up" target="_blank">Pennant 1776: 575</a>, which additionally refers to 14 different works, which I think all (!) describe the Greylag Goose (and are probably best ignored...).Type locality: as declared, encompasses England (Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Suffolk) in winter, Lewis (Hebrides), "northern Europe", Hudson's Bay.Type specimen in Museum Leverianum, cited by both Latham 1785, and Pennant 1785. As I wrote above, the collections of the Museum Leverianum have been dispersed, which makes it difficult to trace the specimens. Many of Latham's types were acquired by the Natuhistorisches Museum Wien, but I cannot trace this one in <a href="http://www.landesmuseum.at/pdf_frei_remote/kat-nhmw_20_0003-0376.pdf" target="_blank">Schifter et al. 2007</a>.Anas segetum Gmelin, 1789. [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/83107#page/18/mode/1up" target="_blank">OD</a>].Based on:- "Brit. Zool. 2. n. 267." = <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/127014#page/235/mode/1up" target="_blank">Pennant 1776: 575</a>;- "Arct. zool. 2. p. 546." = <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/55554#page/394/mode/1up" target="_blank">Pennant 1785: 546</a>;- "Lath. syn. III. 2. p. 464. n. 23." = <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/123874#page/166/mode/1up" target="_blank">Latham 1785: 464</a>.Type locality: as declared, encompasses Hudson's Bay, Hebrides, England in autumn.Translation of descriptive parts of the text: "Anas grey, dirty white below, with bill compressed at the base, white tail coverts, saffron yellow legs." "2½ - 3 foot long" "Bill small, with reddish median part, and black base and tip, ferrugineous colour sprinkled on head and neck, black fringes to the flight feathers, white tail; white nails."Gmelin's segetum entry appears to be derived entirely from the three cited references, which are precisely the same as for Latham's fabalis. It's always possible that Gmelin had seen specimens and did not make this apparent; but, in the absence of evidence that it could be the case, these two names look like objective synonyms. (Despite this, quite oddly, they have long been used, one for Taiga, the other for Tundra BG.)Many authors have noted that interpreting the bare parts' colouration of a dead goose is typically difficult. In particular, although bright orange tends to remain orange on specimens, pink usually fades rapidly into whitish/pale yellow/brownish (eg., look at the bill colours [<a href="http://www.europeana.eu/portal/record/10104/00cc6e70_9d47_493f_83cb_e42e58c0b393.html" target="_blank">here</a>]; the colour can apparently change within the first hour after death). Pennant's and Latham's descriptions indicate "saffron"-coloured legs, which might be interpreted as indicative of Bean Goose but, if based on dead birds, is actually better regarded as inconclusive. For the rest, the descriptions consistently note: a small bill, much compressed near the end, with a median part either whitish or pale red; ferruginous tones on the head and neck; very pale grey wing coverts; and grey-based flight feathers: all of these indicate Pink-footed Goose, not Bean Goose.Faced to this "problem", <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1947.tb04150.x/abstract" target="_blank">Coombes 1947</a> suggested to regard fabalis as composite and, on this base, simply discard it; in his subsequent publications, he used arvensis for Taiga BG, retaining brachyrhynchus for Pink-footed G. However, arvensis is problematic as well (see below); the ICZN does not treat initially composite names as having to be discarded; and in practice I see no actual evidence that the name is composite (if we exclude the references to Greylag Goose descriptions in Brit. Zool.). Nothing in the descriptions applies to Bean and excludes Pink-footed.<a href="http://ardea.nou.nu/ardeapdf//a39-135-142.pdf" target="_blank">Delacour 1951</a> refused to follow Coombes, and issued a quite bold statement reading: "fabalis must be used, and I formally designate the form of yellow legged Forest Bean Goose normally wintering in England, for which the name has been generally used, as representing the bird named by Latham." Subsequent western authors apparently accepted this. However, Delacour's statement is entirely void under the Code; you just cannot designate "a form" to act as typifying a name, this is perfectly invalid.Anser rufescens Brehm in Brehm & Schilling, 1822. [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/103566#page/885/mode/1up" target="_blank">OD</a>]Based on a young specimen from Gotha (Germany), and an adult female specimen plus an egg, from Iceland. The description mainly covers the adult and, unsurprisingly given its provenance, fits Pink-footed Goose perfectly. The German bird differed only in thinner pale edges to the feathers and less marked ferruginous tones on the head.Type locality: Gotha (Germany) and Iceland.This is a senior synonym of brachyrhynchus. Anser playurus Brehm, 1928. [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/47585#page/28/mode/1up" target="_blank">OD</a>]"Anser platyuros Brehm, 1831" [<a href="http://books.google.be/books?id=Xf5TAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA837#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">here</a>] is a subsequent spelling.The OD is minimal (species said to differ from other species by having 20 tail feathers instead of 18 [hence the name]).No type locality given; based on the 1831 work: inhabits "the high north"; in autumn and winter on the Pomeranian coast, very rarely in central Germany.20 tail feathers not normal for any bean goose; BWP describes this only for Greylag (in which it is rare, 18 is usual). I have no clear idea what this bird was.Anser arvensis Brehm, 1831. [<a href="http://books.google.be/books?id=Xf5TAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA839#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">OD</a>]Only 16 tail feathers, bill largely pale.Type locality: inhabits the high north; reaches Germany in autumn.ALSO, from the same work:Anser obscurus Brehm, 1831. [<a href="http://books.google.be/books?id=Xf5TAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA839#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">OD</a>]Smaller than previous, also 16 tail feathers, bill largely black with only a thin pale band, very dark plumage.Based on an adult female shot near Eisenberg, and a young male from Mainz (Germany), the latter described earlier by <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/47585#page/372/mode/1up" target="_blank">Bruch 1821</a>.Anser Bruchii [<a href="http://books.google.be/books?id=Xf5TAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA841#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">OD</a>]Based on a bird described earlier by <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/47585#page/372/mode/1up" target="_blank">Bruch 1821</a> (see also <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/47585#page/672/mode/1up" target="_blank">illustration [#1]</a>).Initially identified by Bruch as Anser medius Temminck, but Temminck then retracted his description of this species, saying it was a young Whitefront; Brehm however remained convinced that Bruch's bird was not a Whitefront, and described it as a new species. Note that the reason why Brehm though the bird not to be a White-fronted is that he though the nail of the bill was invariably pale in Whitefront; but nail can be rather dark in young Whitefronts.16 tail feathers is not normal for any bean goose, but perfectly normal for White-fronted. From the text coming with the last description cited above (A. Bruchii), it is obvious that Brehm would have identified any goose with a dark bill nail as a bean goose, failing to realize that this did not exclude Whitefront at all. In all probabilities, his birds with 16 tail feathers (including "arvensis") were all young White-fronted Geese.(Here comes:Anser brachyrhynchus Baillon, 1834. [<a href="https://books.google.be/books?id=s4w4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA74#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">OD</a>, see also <a href="http://biodiversitylibrary.org/item/96163#page/654/mode/1up" target="_blank">Yarrell 1839</a>]. Based on birds from the Département de la Somme. Specimens (types?) were sent by Baillon to the museums of Paris, Turin, Mayence, Leyden. Type locality vicinity of Abbeville, Somme, France.) Anser serrirostris Gould, 1852. (OD in  The Literary Gazette, 1836: 306; not seen by me.)"Anser segetum var. serrirostris Swinhoe, 1871." [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/90542#page/513/mode/1up" target="_blank">here</a>] is now regarded as a subsequent usage.By Swinhoe's, described as large with huge bill approaching that of A. grandis (Swan Goose);  in comparison to a "home-shot" (=British?) bird (actual species?), paler cheek and throat, much lighter and yellowish-brown neck, narrower white edges and tips to the tail-feathers, and longer tarsi; for the rest similar.Included in Swinhoe's new taxon were winter birds from Amoy (China), two specimens from Trans-Baikal at the British Museum and a specimen from Shanghai in Gould's collection, the latter labelled "serrirostris" by Gould. All of this, however, is irrelevant if the name is taken directly from Gould--to the exception of the information that Gould labelled a bird with the name. This bird is almost certainly either the holotype, or a syntype. (I can't say more without having seen Gould's text.)Type locality: presumably Shanghai. In all probability not Amoy.Anser leukonyx Selys Longchamps, 1855. [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/19887#page/415/mode/1up" target="_blank">OD</a>]Characterized by white nails (hence the name) to the feet. Plumage like that of arvensis; bill colour like that of "intermedius Naum." which he said he had illustrated [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/19887#page/111/mode/1up" target="_blank">here</a>], pale parts partly pink, partly yellow; legs described as pale pink; eye-ring black.Based on a non-fresh specimen seen by the author in the possession of H. Roberti in Sint-Truiden (Belgium). Where the bird itself had been obtained is not said.Foot nails are not usually white in any bean goose as far as I know; white in White-fronted and in Greylag. I'm unclear what this bird was; I'm not fully certain that we can exclude some kind of semi-domestic Greylag.Anas paludosus Strickland, 1858. [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/71836#page/138/mode/1up" target="_blank">OD</a>, with <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/71836#page/551/mode/1up" target="_blank">Illustration</a> (#1)]Based in part on the illustrations of:- <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/63107#page/163/mode/1up" target="_blank">Yarrell 1851</a>;- <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/133915#page/22/mode/1up" target="_blank">Gould 1837</a>.Strickland thought that "the true segetum or Bean Goose", the one which comes in large numbers in Britain, had a short bill (and that the Pink-footed Goose was "the young of" this species). He further thought that a long- and weak-billed goose, which he imagined more associated to water, also existed, and had formerly bred in Britain, but did not anymore. This (half-hypothetical, as I read it) goose, he named Anas paludosus.Hypothetically inhabited Britain in the past; no actual type locality given.I'd tend to treat this as doubtfully available. (Based upon a hypothetical concept.)I don't find any trace of this one.Anyway, Sherborn does lists (but it is omitted by Richmond, no idea why):Anser palustris Fleming, 1828. [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/18569#page/154/mode/1up" target="_blank">OD</a>]...which is undoubtedly a Greylag. This would preoccupy the 1828 name, which could therefore never become valid.Anser middendorffii Severtsov, 1873. [<a href="http://books.e-heritage.ru/book/10080878" target="_blank">OD</a>: distribution in Turkestan p.70; description p.149]An English translation was published by <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35122#page/460/mode/1up" target="_blank">Dresser 1876</a>. (However, despite my desperately poor Russian, the apparent translation of "туркестанскихъ" in the 3rd §, into "from the Amoor", calls for cautiousness... If anybody who really reads this language would be so kind as to check the two versions and see if they differ in other respects, I'd be more than interested.)The taxon was discovered by Middendorff, who described it in 1853, misidentifying it as "Anser grandis Gmelin" (which actually applies to Swan Goose) [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/114021#page/235/mode/1up" target="_blank">description</a>, <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/114021#page/307/mode/1up" target="_blank">illustration</a>]. It was then treated under this name by several subsequent authors, including <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/104491#page/504/mode/1up" target="_blank">Schrenck 1860</a>.Severtsov, while studying geese from Turkestan, found them identical to Middendorff's bird, but noted that Anser grandis Gmelin did not apply to them, and therefore "renamed" the taxon (which, actually, was unnamed).Included under the new name were Middendorff's bird, Severtsov's own Turkestan bird, and specimens described by Schrenck.Type locality: Middendorff wrote about his bird that it does not reach the Taimyr, but has been caught on the <a href="https://www.google.be/maps/place/Boganida+River,+Krasnoyarsk+Krai,+Russia" target="_blank">Boganida</a>; then he went on saying that it was killed on 25 April on the Polovinnaya, not far from Uds'kój Os'tróg (Удской острог, the jail of <a href="https://www.google.be/maps/place/Udskoye,+Khabarovskiy+kray" target="_blank">Udskoye</a>, Khabarovsk Krai) (I'd be tempted to interpret the first location as possibly second-hand info, the second as the the locality of origin of his specimen); Schrenk's birds were from the Amur region; for his own birds, Severtsov cites the Aris (now Arys), Keless (now Keles), and Chirchick (now Chirchiq) rivers, Turkestan; nowadays, the former two are in Kazakhstan, the last one in Uzbekistan.Anser neglectus Sushkin, 1895. [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/101092#page/300/mode/1up" target="_blank">OD</a>]Later described in more detail by <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/54800#page/47/mode/1up" target="_blank">Sushkin 1897</a>.Similar to "Anser segetum" but orange in the bill and feet replaced with pink; darker head and neck. Upperwing lacking the blue grey present in Pink-footed Goose.Based on 8 birds collected on autumn passage on the lake Thoungak, government of Ufa, where such birds said to be common at this time. Breeding grounds unknown.One of the syntypes used to be <a href="https://archive.org/stream/typespecimensofb01brit#page/200/mode/2up" target="_blank">at the British Museum</a> (Reg. no. 1897.6.19.1).Five birds labelled "neglectus", but none of the types, were sequenced by Ruokonnen & Aarvak 2011; their position in the tree varied widely, indicating that birds that received such labels are not interrelated--this being consistent with them not being a distinct taxon. Only an analysis of one of the types could yield actual information about what the names applies to. This name is available, has precedence over, ia., rossicus, and is not a nomen oblitum.Anser mentalis Oates, 1899. [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/49463#page/91/mode/1up" target="_blank">OD</a>]Like the "Common Bean-goose" but bigger.The holotype is a bird from the Seebohm collection, <a href="https://archive.org/stream/typespecimensofb01brit#page/184/mode/2up" target="_blank">at the British Museum</a> (Reg. no. 1894.8.12.11).Type locality Yokohama.Ruokonnen & Aarvak 2011 sequenced the holotype, and found it to have a tundra bean goose haplotype. In their morphological analysis, this bird appeared atypical, albeit closest to middendorffii.(Twice the same thing, ie.<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />Anser carneirostris Buturlin, 1901. (OD in "Дикие гуси Российской империи", "Wild geese of the Russian Empire", published in Псовая и ружейная охота ["Psovaya i ruzheinaya okhota"], "Hounds and hunting rifles"--this is not a location in the Urals, but a magazine; not seen by me.)See, eg., <a href="https://archive.org/stream/geeseEuropeAsia00Alfe#page/120/mode/2up" target="_blank">Alpheraky 1905</a>, <a href="https://archive.org/stream/aquila3841193134magy#page/225/mode/1up" target="_blank">Buturlin 1934</a>.Based on an orange-legged, but pink-&-black-billed bird described earlier (but not named) by <a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/102848#page/133/mode/1up" target="_blank">Heuglin 1872</a>. (As well as, according to Buturlin 1934, unpublished handwritten notes by two other authors.)Type locality Novaya Zemlya.Bird said by Buturlin 1934 to be identical to rossicus, except for the bill band colour. This name clearly is available, has precedence over rossicus, apparently applies to the same taxon, and is not a nomen oblitum. Anser oatesi Rickett, 1901. [<a href="http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/114181#page/204/mode/1up" target="_blank">OD</a>]Described as having the size of Pink-footed, but a much bigger bill and a white chin.Based on a single shot specimen; only the head/neck, one wing, and one leg said to have been preserved. Wing 16.4, tarsus 2.9.Type locality Fohkien (Fujian, China).The lower limits for serrirostris in Alpheraky 1905 were: wing 16.7, tarsus 2.78. I'm unconvinced that this bird is really outside the normal variation.Ruokonnen & Aarvak 2011 sequenced a bird (BMNH 1902.8.5.365), labelled oatesi by Rickett and collected from the same locality, and found it had a Tundra Bean Goose haplotype. They also tried sequencing the type (which is therefore certainly still extant), but without success.Melanonyx arvensis sibiricus Alpheraky, 1904. (OD in "Гуси России", "Geese of Russia", 1904; not seen by me; translated into English as The Geese of Europe & Asia 1905.) [<a href="https://archive.org/stream/geeseEuropeAsia00Alfe#page/104/mode/2up" target="_blank">translation of OD</a>; <a href="https://archive.org/stream/geeseEuropeAsia00Alfe#page/n239/mode/2up" target="_blank">illustration</a>; <a href="https://archive.org/stream/geeseEuropeAsia00Alfe#page/n261/mode/2up" target="_blank">bill</a>]Alpheraky checked Severtsov's specimens from Turkestan, and concluded that these did not represent the same taxon as Middendorff's Goose. He judged that the name middendorffii had to remain with these Turkestan specimens, and placed the name in the synonymy of his Melanonyx arvensis.No type designated; type series complex, as many references included in the taxon, and all the birds described in these are in theory syntypes. Range described as "East Siberia, from the Taimyr peninsula eastwards to Kamchatka, Chukchiland, and the Komandor Islands”. 13 specimens listed explicitly in a table on p.107, from a wide variety of locations within this whole range. Among these, however, the two that are marked "Taimyr", both have a question mark next to their stated geographical origin. I would regard the inclusion of Taimyr in the original type locality as uncertain; I see no reason to regard this as a synonym of rossicus, and this is certainly not what the name was intended to be.Subsequent authors have varied in their reading, some following Alpheraky (eg., Buturlin & Dement'ev 1935), others regarding Severtsov's name as attached to Middendorff's bird, rather than to Severtsov's Turkestan birds, in which case middendorffii is valid. In particular, <a href="http://ardea.nou.nu/ardeapdf//a39-135-142.pdf" target="_blank">Delacour 1951</a> commented: "According to Dementiev (Alauda 1936, pp. 181-189), Severtzov has expressly indicated that middendorffi is a new name  for A. grandis Middendorf, antedated by Anser grandis Gmelin, which  applies to the domestic breed of A. cygnoides", and he concluded that the name therefore had to apply to Middendorff's bird. I have not seen Dementiev 1936, but the above reading is unlikely to be tenable, because Middendorff did not actually propose any new name. He merely, explicitly, (mis)applied Gmelin's name, which is therefore the only available name that could have been replaced. And if middendorffii replaced Gmelin's name, what it applies to is the Swan Goose, and it cannot be used for any bean goose... I think it makes more sense to regard it as applying to a new taxon, which therefore has a composite type series, the two sets of birds (Middendorff's and Severtsov's) being syntypes: what we would need here is a lectotypification. (Alpheraky did not do this, as far as I can see; neither did Delacour.)(What seems clear, in any event, is that you can not use middendorffii as the valid name of eastern Taiga Bean Goose, and claim its type locality is Turkestan.)Melanonyx segetum anadyrensis Buturlin, 1908. (OD in Наша охота ["Nascha Okhota"], "Our hunting", again a hunting magazine; not seen by me.)Based on a male shot on 11 July 1902, in coll. Menzbir.Type locality given by Buturlin & Dement'ev 1935 as "Post Novo-Mariniskiy"; in Anadyr, but I'm not clear where exactly.This is, again, a pink-and-black-billed bird (see <a href="https://archive.org/stream/aquila3841193134magy#page/225/mode/1up" target="_blank">Buturlin 1934</a>).Anser serrirostris rossicus Buturlin, 1933. (OD in "Определитель промысловых птиц", "Identification of game birds"; not seen by me.)Introduced upon the realization that the name then used for the western Tundra Bean Goose (segetum) was actually a synonym of the name then used for the western Taiga Bean Goose (fabalis).The type  is an adult male, collected 2 June 1908, deposited in Zool. Mus. Univ. Moscow, according to both Buturlin 1934 and Delacour 1951. (Albeit, surprisingly, this name is called a nomen emendatum in Buturlin & Dement'ev 1935...?)Type locality reported inconsistently (ia, "restricted by Dementiev, Alauda, 1936, p. 190 to Beluchia Guba, Jamal, Taymyr" according to Delacour 1951, but  Belushya Guba is on the W coast of Novaya Zemlya, and Yamal and Taimyr are two distinct peninsulas...). If there is a single type specimen, where this type was obtained is the actual type locality ("restrictions", etc., are irrelevant).</blockquote>

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