Clarification of the taxonomic position of the passer moabiticus moabiticus tristr. and the passer moabiticus yath sharpe (dedikált példány) [antikvár]

CLARIFICATION OF THE TAXONOMIC POSITION OF THE PASSER MOABITICUS MOABITICUS TRISTR. AND THE PASSER MOABITICUS Y AT 11 SHARPEByI. BOROS and L. HORVATH Museum of Natural History, Budapest Received 17, May 1953.Out of the 10 species of sparrows of the Palearctic known at present, Passer moabiticus moabiticus Tristr. and Passer moabiticus yatii Sharpe are mentioned as subspecies in the great general work ofE. Harttrt. The first was primarily described by Tristram in 1864 and the second was introduced into the literature by Sharpe in 1888. According to both, Tristram and Sharpe, Passer moabiticus moabiticus is to be found in Palestine on the southern and western reed-banks of the Dead Sea, but according to Allouse it nests also in Iraq. As to Passer moabiticus yatii it occurs on the frontier of Afghanistan and Iran at a distance of 2500 kilometres in airline from the former region, along the banks of the Hilmend feeding the swamp of Hamun, and also in the tamarisk thickets of the PersianBeluchistan borderland.H a r t e r t when comparing the two originally described species did not ascertain essential dissimilarities and even found them deceptively alike. Although he stresses that the dull brown colour of the fresh autumn plumage of Passer yatii is more marked on the head and on the nape, lighter and more yellowish on the rump, that the yellow patches on the sides of the neck are darker, the yellow colour of the breast and of the belly shades off into grey in the early autumn plumages, he also points out that the sides of the body show traces of a greyish-brown colour and the cinnamon-brown of the undertail coverts is paler and is rather limited to the basal part. According to H a r t e r t it is also a little larger. The size of the wings varies from 64 to 68 mm. The female, also on the strength of H a r t e r t, matches that of the Passer moabiticus moabiticus but is larger, lighter on the back, with a slightly yellowish tinge underneath the fresh plumage and with much yellow in the worn plumage on the belly.In the case of 25 specimens of Passer moabiticus yatii in the Museum of Natural Sciences, originating from the collection of Harms collected in 1900, and the 12 specimens of Passer moabiticus moabiticus, the dissimilarities just casually mentioned by H a r t e r t, show at first glance striking divergencies. This is all the more surprising as some of the birds which originated as mentioned above from territories though 2500 km distant but of the same latitude were collected on the same day (4th) of December.