Postilla

rows
Ane AS

bt

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

IR
iS)

LIBRARY

OF THE

Museum of Comparative Zoology

,
Pe
re

J ot

i
svt — °|
van bg:

; 5
yp kee.4 8
: ine
2)
wi i.
&
| ad
he,
,
*,
or

7

aie

YALE PEABODY MUSEUM

oF Natura History

Number 52 June 28, 1961 New Haven, Conn.

AEGEAN BIRD NOTES I

DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SUBSPECIES
FROM TURKEY

GrorcE E. Watson

Prasopy Museum, Yate UNIversiry

INTRODUCTION

In the course of gathering material for a study of the Aegean
avifauna, I was able to collect during March and April, 1960,
in south and west Asia Minor. The areas visited extended from
Tarsus, Icel, and Pozanti, Seyhan, along the south coast to
Mugla and up the west coast to Bursa. Some of the regions
visited have been little collected during the early spring. This
fresh material revealed that the populations of some species
in this area were markedly different from other known popula-
tions nearby. Therefore, the following descriptions of new
subspecies are presented. The distinctness of some of these
populations suggests that biogeographic studies of the Asia
Minor avifauna may be rewarding in terms of elucidating east-
ern Mediterranean late Pleistocene refugia (cf Kosswig, 1955,
Syst. Zool. 4: 49-73, 96).

2 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 52

I
Prinia gracilis

The population of the Streaked Prinia inhabiting south
coastal Asia Minor was found to be consistently different from
its nearest geographical relatives and warranted description as
a new subspecies. This difference was suggested by the infor-
mation available to Hartert (1910, Vég. der pal. Fauna: 609)
and Zedlitz (1911, Journ. f. Orn. 59: 610) but overlooked by
them. I therefore propose the name:

Prinia gracilis akyildzi subsp. nov.

Type: Adult ¢ (Y.P.M. No. 59196) collected in Antalya,
Turkey, March 31, 1960, by George EK. Watson.

Diacnosis: Nearest to P. g. deltae and P. g. paldstinae but
darker above, with even broader dark-brown shaft-streaks on
the back; underparts brighter and more suffused with buff.
This character is most noticeable in fresh unworn plumage,
but even in late March south Asia Minor birds are separable
from spring specimens from Palestine, Syria, and the Nile of
Egypt. Brown shaft-streaks are present on the feathers at the
sides of the upper breast and form an indistinct necklace.
On some specimens shaft-streaks are also present on the
flanks. This character clearly separates this race from all
others of the species except P. g. deltae in which side and
breast-streaking is present in some specimens. Tail with less
well-defined and narrower black subterminal bars than either
P. g. paldstinae or P. g. deltae; tip buffish not whitish as in
P. g. paldstinae. In the reduced width and lack of definition
of the subterminal bars this form resembles P. g. irakensis, but
the back-streaking is far more emphasized and the general
color tone is darker, more brown. The culmen averages mark-
edly shorter than in any of the other three races.

MrasurEMENTsS: Type, wing, 44; tail, 66; culmen (from
skull), 10.6 mm; weight, 6.5 gr. Six other specimens from An-
talya, Tarsus, and Adana, south Turkey: 2 ¢ é wing, 42,
42 ; tail, 65, 60; bill, 11.2, 11 mm; weight, 6.7 gr; 4 2 2 wing,

June 28,1961 Aegean Bird Notes from Turkey ee 3

\ '

(tee Sent se |
Merino. oe. tall, 59,505, 50,005 bill, LOr5, 12, 11 11 mm;

weight, 6.7, 6.5, 6.5 gr.

Cotor or sorr parts: Iris light red-brown, light-brown, or
cream; bill flesh or upper mandible brown, lower mandible
cream or yellow-cream; feet buffish-flesh or flesh. Apparently
the bill color in this species changes to black during the
breeding season.

The type series consists of six specimens, two males and
four females collected between March 2 and March 31, 1960,
at Antalya, and Tarsus, Icel, in south Turkey. In addition,
a single male from the American Museum collected in nearby
Adana, January 1, 1879, was also examined. A male collected
on March 3 is renewing feathers on the center throat. None
of the specimens had gonads enlarged for breeding, but males
were calling loudly from exposed perches.

Rance: This race is confined to the coastal fringe of south-
ern Turkey. It extends on the west as far as Antalya and on
the east to Adana and probably as far as the Arsuz plain
where Kizil Dag (Mount Amanus) may form a barrier between
this race and P. g. paldstinae. The species has been seen a
little farther north at Osmaniye (Danford, 1880, [bis 22:
84); two American Museum specimens from Kara Suleiman,
“Syria” (—Karasiileyman, Maras, Turkey?), approach this
form in darker-brown upperparts, broad shaft-streaks, short
bill, and reduced black subterminal tail bar; the underparts,
however, are very pale, as in P. g. irakensis.

Remarks: This population, the darkest, brownest, and most
heavily streaked of the species, is also the northernmost;
Antalya is the farthest west that the species has been found in
Asia Minor. The population, therefore, comprises the end
points of east-west and south-north clines of increasing color
saturation from India and Arabia. Another saturated brown
population, P. g. deltae, occurs along the lower Nile and toward
Suez. Southern Turkey is also the western end point of the pop-
ulations which have narrow or indistinct subterminal tail bars.
These range from the Brahmaputra westward across India,

4 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 52

Pakistan, southern Afghanistan, southern Iran, southeast Ara-
bia, Iraq, northern Syria (?) to south coastal Asia Minor.

This new race is named for Zubeyir Akyildiz who shared in
my explorations of southern Turkey.

ve “ se se * <r ah

In studying the Asia Minor population of Prinia gracilis,
I had the opportunity to examine some specimens from Arabia,
including the type of P. g. anguste Ripley from Bahrein
Island and part of the type series of P. g. carpenteri de
Schauensee and Ripley from Oman. P. g. anguste, based on a
single worn July specimen, is said to differ from P. g. hufufae,
the population of the adjacent mainland, in being darker and
more brownish-gray with narrower shaft-streaks. The only
specimens of P. g. hufufae available to me are five freshly
molted November birds of the Cox-Cheeseman type series in
the American Museum of Natural History. I can find no char-
acter in the type of P. g. anguste compared with this series
which I would not attribute to the birds being collected at
different times of the year. Meinertzhagen (1954, Birds of
Arabia: 219) states that a specimen he collected on Bahrein
is identical with mainland birds.

P. g. carpentert from Muscat, Oman, is a well-marked race.
It differs sharply from P. g. hufufae to the north in its nar-
rower and less distinct subterminal tail bars; from P. g. ye-
menensis to the west in its more distinctly cross-rayed tail
and more finely pencilled head and back-streaking; and from
P. g. trakensis from Iraq and southwestern Iran and P. g.
lepida from southern Iran, Afghanistan, and northwestern In-
dia in its darker back coloration and more prominent sub-
terminal tail bars. I cannot agree with Meinertzhagen (ibid:
220) and lump Oman specimens with P. g. lepida.

II

Erithacus rubecula

The Robin varies clinally and occasionally markedly over

its continental Palearctic range. As shown by Lack (1946,
oS ©

1947, Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. 66: 55-65; 67: 51-54; and 1951

: ’

June 28,1961 Aegean Bird Notes from Turkey 5

Ibis 93: 629-30), there is a widespread north and central
European form (EF. r. rubecula) with olive-brown upperparts,
brownish tail and upper tail coverts, and reddish-orange throat
and breast. To the east, populations occur in Caucasia (E. r.
caucasicus) and Iran (EF. r. hyrcanus) with darker backs
and breasts and with a strong rufous tinge to the sides of
the tail and upper tail coverts. In the Urals there breeds
a somewhat reddish-tailed, but strikingly pale gray-backed
form (E. r. tataricus). In Spain and Italy Robins tend
to be darker, approaching the north African form (EF. r.
witherbyi). An isolated slightly grayish-backed population
(E. r. atlas) is found in northwest Morocco. On the other
hand, a different clinal tendency starts in Yugoslavia, Ex-
tending through southern Greece and across Bulgaria to Asia
Minor, Robins are markedly gray above and paler below,
but even Turkish specimens have the brownish tail of the

European populations.

io in ee aN,
ee a

e Ulu Das

Turkey

@ Boz Das

e@ Kara Suleyman

Tar e@ Adana
Ak Dage Antalya oLe

a e be a ANS fe ) 7,
“7 ae \ pee Kizil
¢

/
We Rhodes

6 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 52

Lack refrained from giving this southeast population a
name but noted its existence, especially pronounced in Bul-
garia, although he later (1951, Ibis 93: 629-630) believed
that the grayishness was merely due to wear rather than valid
geographic variation. Stresemann (1920, Avifawna Macedo-
nica: 179-180) also noted gray spring specimens in Macedonia.
Examples of the gray form have been found near Bursa in
northwest Turkey by Mrs. Scott-Neuhauser (1948, Sencken-
bergiana 28: 177), but she collected what appears to be E. r.
caucasicus in Rize. Koller (1948, Senchenbergiana 28: 177
collected a dark specimen (“E. r. xanthothorax” = HE. rf.
caucasicus on passage towards the Aegean?) in Bolu.

The lack of a nomenclaturally recognized population breed-
ing in Asia Minor has led to confusion about the identity and
origin of the wintering populations of the Aegean (e.g. what
to do with EF. r. vanthothoraw). The very marked gray char-
acter of Asia Minor birds and the reddish tail and upper tail
coverts of Caucasian and other eastern populations makes
them both equally separable from the brownish-backed and
tailed European populations. The nomenclatural recognition
of this Balkan gray cline will perhaps lead to more meaningful
discussion of geographic variation in the eastern part of the
species range and will certainly make the nomenclature better
balanced, since all other clinal trends are named or overnamed.
Therefore, the most extreme population of this gray cline is
given the name:

Erithacus rubecula baleanicus subsp. nov.

Tyrer: Adult ¢ (Y.P.M. No. 59198) collected on Boz Dag,
Odemis, Izmir in western Turkey at 4,200 feet on April 20,
1960, by George EK. Watson.

Diacnosis: Differs sharply from all other subspecies in its
concolorous olive-gray back and rump, brownish flanks, pale-
orange underparts, and grayish brown-edged rectrices. The
grayish upper tail coverts are most diagnostic of this form.
The population tends toward nominate E. r. rubecula in north-
ern Yugoslavia and is grayest in north and west Asia Minor.

June 28,1961 Aegean Bird Notes from Turkey id

No difference from the nominate form in length of wing, tail,
and culmen, or weight.

MeasurEMEnTs: Type, wing, 70; tail, 56; culmen, 15 mm;
weight, 17.5 gr; 2 6 ¢ wing, 71, 71; tail, 59, 58; culmen, 14,
iad mm ssweieht, 18.3, 18.7 gr; 4 2 2 wimg; 70; 68, (1-5,
mi bes tail, 56; 56, 56, 58-.culmen; 15.2, 14:2, 13:8, 14 mm;
weight, 22 (laying), 21.5 (laying), 17, 17.

The type series consists of seven specimens, one breeding
male and two laying females from Boz Dag (March 20, 21),
and four wintering specimens from Antalya, south Turkey,
and the Aegean islands of Icaria and Andros (February and
March). In addition, nine breeding and wintering specimens
were examined from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Rance: Breeds from northern Yugoslavia south through the
Balkans to southernmost peninsular Greece (rare in the Pelo-
ponnesus) and across Bulgaria to northern and western but
apparently not southern Asia Minor. At the eastern limits of
its range in Asia Minor it may meet a reddish-tailed popula-
tion of EF. r. caucasicus probably near Samsun or ‘Trabzond,
but breeding specimens are lacking from this area. In the
southern part of its range, breeding is confined to the moun-
tains, both in conifer (Abies) and deciduous forests and open
woods. In winter, individuals move to lower altitudes, and some
birds may spread into the Aegean islands (Andros, Icaria)
and to the south coast of Turkey (Antalya).

Remarks: It is possible that a discontinuity exists between
the birds of southern Bulgaria and those of northwest Asia
Minor. Nothing would be gained, however, in further sepa-
rating the cline on this slight difference. In the Aegean is-
lands and in the southern Balkan Peninsula EF. r. rubecula
is also found wintering. See below for a discussion of “EK. r.
vanthothorax.”

This Balkan cline probably results from the northwestward
post-glacial expansion of an isolated forest population from
the Mediterranean “pluvial” refuge into which the birds re-
treated during the Wirm glacial advance.

8 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 52

I propose this new subspecies fully aware of the “tyranny
of subspecific names” (Lack 1946, Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. 66: 63)
in the Robin. Partially following Dr. Lack’s admonition, I
have given this population the most appropriate geographic
name available for the entire range.

Bs
1

Many authors have questioned the validity of FE. r. wantho-
thorax Salvadori and Festa (1913, Bull. Mus. Zool. Anat.
Comp. Torino 28: 15). This name is based on a series of five
birds collected during February and March in Rhodes in the
south Aegean. The characters cited in the description clearly
mark the birds as belonging to a reddish-tailed southeastern
form. Robins are common on Rhodes during the winter. Most
had left but I located a few on March 30, 1959; following that
date no more were seen. A Rhodian forest guard, who was
well aware of the identity of the bird, told me that no Robins
would be seen again until October. The type series in Turin
is too old and dirty to distinguish much color definition, but
on the basis of the type description and the following measure-
ments (personally taken) including the type, the series belongs
with the shorter-billed Caucasian birds, rather than with the
Iranian form: 1 é (type) wing, 72; tail, 51; culmen, 14.5
mm; 222 wing, 71, 70; tail, 53.5, 53:55 culmen, > 4S
mm; 1 o wing, 69; tail, 53; culmen, 14.5 mm; I therefore en-
dorse Vaurie’s (1958, Birds Pal. Fauna: 376) decision in syn-
onomizing the name EF. r. wanthothorax with E. r. caucasicus.

III
Prunella modularis

A very dark gray population of Hedge Sparrow breeds in
the fir forest up to the tree limit on Ulu Dag above Bursa
in northwest Turkey. The two males collected necessitated
comparison with series from nearby breeding localities. This
comparison revealed that the Asia Minor birds differ sharply
from nearby Balkan and Caucasian and Iranian birds and

June 28,1961 Aegean Bird Notes from Turkey 9

further suggested that the Balkan population P. m. meinertz-
hagent Harrison and Pateff is merely the extremely dark end
point on a continental cline of increasing grayness.

There are two well-marked groups of populations of Hedge
Sparrows in southeast Europe and southwest Asia. The gray-
ish nominate group modularis, with black back-spotting, breeds
over most of Europe down to southern Bulgaria and northern
Greece (Peus, 1957, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin 33: 275). The
browner obscura form, with brown back-spotting breeds in the
Caucasus and northern Iran.

The Balkan population meinertzhageni is an extreme form
of the modularis group. The gray of the underparts is darker
and more extensive than in the nominate race; whitish flecking
is reduced or absent. Above, the bird is a trifle grayer with
larger darker spots. Most wintering Hedge Sparrows from
the Aegean are separable into two categories. Most of those
collected in the north, in Epirus and Macedonia and in the
Asia Minor islands, belong to the meinertzhageni population,
and most of those from the south and in the Cyclades are
northern European P. m. modularis. Iranian and Caucasian
birds differ from each other mainly in degree. Caucasian birds
are darker and the gray of the underparts is more extensive.

On the other hand, the two breeding males from Ulu Dag
show some blending of characters but differ from both these
forms in several characters and I therefore propose the name:

Prunella modularis euxina subsp. nov.

Type: Adult ¢ (Y.P.M. No. 59297) collected on Ulu Dag
(= Asiatic Mount Olympus of some authors), Bursa, north-
west Turkey, April 29, 1960, by George E. Watson.

Dracnosts: Head light ashy-gray heavily streaked with
brown: superciliary buffy-gray; back light reddish-brown with
darker-brown spots; rump and upper tail coverts brownish-
gray; underparts dark ashy-gray with white on the center of
the abdomen, some of the lower breast feathers tipped with
white, sides of upper breast washed with brown; flanks mod-
erately streaked with the same brown as the back; under tail

10 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 52

coverts gray-brown. In dorsal coloration, this form is closest
to P. m. obscura in having brown not black spotting, but it
differs from eastern birds mainly in its grayer and darker
underparts and the lesser extent of white on the abdomen. It is
even darker gray below than the darkest individuals of P. m.
modularis from the Balkans. From both subspecies it differs
in having gray, not brown rump and upper tail coverts and in
having the flanks much less strongly marked with brown.

P.m. modularis P.m. euxina P.m. obscura
Crown gray with brown light ashy-gray gray-brown with
streaks with light- brown streaks
brown streaks
Superciliary dark-gray buffy-gray gray-buff
Dorsal spotting black brown brown
Rump andupper brown gray brown

tail coverts

Underparts gray dark-gray light brownish-
gray
Flanks heavy brown restricted heavy brown
streaks streaking streaks
Under tail dark brownish- light-gray brownish-gray
coverts gray

MeEaAsurEMENTS: Type and one other ¢: wing, 69, 68.5;
tail, 57, 56; culmen (from skull), 13, 14 mm; weight, 22, 21 gr.

Rance: Mountainous fir forests of northern Asia Minor.
Eastern limits of range unknown but probably meets P. m.
obscura in Transcaucasia or Turkish Armenia. Probably some-
what migratory (wing length and formula same as other mi-
gratory populations) but winter range unknown.

Remarks: Although there is some introgression of charac-
ters of the eastern populations into this north Asia Minor
population, the much darker-gray underparts and gray rump
suggest that it is on a separate evolutionary line, one that has
perhaps developed in situ in the thick fir forests of the rainy
north coast. The fact that the Bursa population is also so
sharply different in several characters from the Balkan form
further suggests that this population is isolated from the

June 28,1961 Aegean Bird Notes from Turkey ula

European birds as well. And in fact there are no high conif-
erous forests in Kuropean Turkey. The Ulu Dag population
therefore constitutes the end point of an Asia Minor cline
running westward from the Caucasus.

In habitat the north Asia Minor population differs some-
what from northern and especially western European birds.
It is found confined to the fir forest and tree line scrub in
Turkey, but the same species is a bird of deciduous gardens
and hedgerows in western Europe, and also open conifer woods
in north central Europe. Northern birds wintering in the
Aegean are usually to be found in lowland macchia or open
woods undergrowth.

A single female collected March 7, 1960, above Tarsus in
the foothills of the Cilician Taurus Mountains is clearly a
wintering example of the nominate race from northern Europe.
It is impossible to separate from the paler winter specimens
from the Aegean. Danforth also collected winter P. m. modu-
laris in the Taurus in 1879 (Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. 7: 652
Apparently, only light-colored migrants with white-flecked
breasts were collected in northern Asia Minor by Kummer-
lowe and Niethammer (1935, Journ. f. Orn. 83: 40), Réssner
(1934: Akad. Wiss. Wien math-natur. Klasse Sitz. 1944: 307),
and Mrs. Scott-Neuhauser (1948, Senchenbergiana 28: 178),
although the first pair of coliectors undoubtedly earlier ob-
served breeding birds. The new subspecific name is derived
from the classical epithet for the present-day Black Sea which
marks the northern limit of this population.

LV
Montifringilla nivalis

Three well-marked groups of populations of Snow Finch
occur in the Palearctic. The nivalis group of southern Europe
has brown upperparts and a gray head; the variable alpicola
group of central Asia has a brown head and back; and the
henrict group of Tibet is uniform brown above but washed
with gray-brown below. Nine specimens from south Asia Minor
belong to the alpicola group, in which there are four fairly

12 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 52

well-marked races. M. n. alpicola has an extensive range from
the Caucasian Mountains south into Turkish Armenia, where
the exact western limits of the range are unknown, and east-
ward across northern Iran towards Afghanistan and into the
Tian Shan range. In southern Iran, in the Zagros, a markedly
paler race M. n. gaddi occurs; in Mongolia another pale race
M. n. groum-grzimaili is found. These three races are long-
billed. A very pale-sandy and short-billed race M. n. kwen-
lunensis occurs in the Kun Lun and Astin Tagh ranges. The
south Asia Minor population, which is isolated from these four
populations, differs in being lighter in color and showing char-
acters which approach the European nivalis group. For this
isolated southern population I propose the name:

Montifringilla nivalis fahrettini subsp. nov.

Type: Adult ¢ (Y.P.M. No. 59445) collected at 6,400 feet
on Ak Dag, Kas, Antalya, southern Turkey on March 25,

,

1960, by George E. Watson.

Dracnosis: Closest to M. n. gaddi but much paler and grayer
on the back, less reddish-tan and with a pronounced grayish
tinge on the crown, whereas Zagros birds have the head essen-
tially the same color as the back. Wing and bill in the spring
adult much shorter than in the Zagros population at the same
season. Differs from M, n. alpicola in its markedly lighter and
less brown upperparts and in having a shorter bill and wing.
Differs from M. n. nivalis in much lighter upperparts, less
distinctly gray head, shorter wing, and lighter weight.

MEaAsvurEMENTs: Type, wing, 112; tail, 68; bill from skull,
14:5 mm; weight, 33 er, 4-66 wing, TTS 7 its ele
(mean of 5: 114); tail, 68, 71, 69, 70 (69); bill, ta .soae
14.5, 14.1 (14.1); weight, 31, 33, 34, 35.5 (33.3); 4 2 9
wing, 110, 111, 116, 106, (111-3) ; tail, 65, 625 73, G4(Go)e
bill, 14, 14.5, 14, 14 (14.1); weight, 32.5, 32.5, 33, 28.5
(31.6).

M.n. nivalis (Greece), 4 6 6 wing, 116-120 (119) ; tail, 67-72
(69.5) ; bill, 13.5-14 (13.6) ; weight, 37-40 (38.1); 1 2 wing,
116; tail, 64; bill, 13.5 mm; weight, 37 gr.

June 28,1961 Aegean Bird Notes from Turkey 13

M. n. alpicola, 10 $ 8 wing, 117-112 (118.9); 7 ¢ ¢ tail,
66-71 (68.9); 10 4 ¢ bill, 16-17.5 (16.4); 4 2 2 wing, 110-
AC U1D)) = vo Pe Petails.62; 66,,72)/(66)> 4.2, 2, bill, 15-16.5
(15.88).

M. n. gaddi, 19 3 8 wing, 116-126 (119.3); 18 ¢ ¢ tail, 68-
footiales) 184 s bill, lo-17-5 (16.2) 5 4, 2.2 wing, 112-116
Gites); 5,2 2 tail, 65-71 (68:5): 5 2 2 bill, 15-16 (15.6).
Measurements of M. n. alpicola and M. n. gaddi are taken
from Vaurie (1949, Amer. Mus. Novitates 1406: 29).

Summer collected specimens of this species tend to have
shorter and more worn bills than winter birds (Stegmann 1932,
Journ. f. Orn. SO: 99). This is perhaps related to a change in
diet from insects picked off snow to seeds picked and scratched
from bare rocky soil. It should be pointed out, however, that
late March M. n. fahrettini were compared with late March
M. n. gaddi. The bills were found to be markedly longer and
more attenuated in the Zagros birds. A young January speci-
men from the north Zagros does have a short bill, but not as
short as that of the longest-billed Asia Minor bird. Further-
more, Vaurie’s measurements were taken on birds collected
at all times of the year, including January and February as
well as spring and summer. His shortest measurements for
M.n. gaddi and M. n. alpicola do not overlap at all the longest
measurements of the Asia Minor population. Taking the bill
measurements of five examples of each of the four populations
(data from Vaurie ibid.: 28) and of the two populations
M.n. gaddi and M. n. fahrettini and comparing them gives
the following variance ratio table:

df ss ms VR

Between

ASIST OU Si levers vel cle) sr isiacs tesa 3 25.8 8.6 21.5

7} AON Boo bebdoootmeeacor 1 eo 7.9 46.6
Within

4: (SRO Goan oobodeooseeboL 16 6.5 A

74. (AON doe saa cone eoacoouT 8 1.4 alts
Total

AME TOUDS? Notre cicta Roe oe cee 19 2.27

PM ETOWPSh tx Wecrneree ree c 9 9.3

14 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 52

Had all the measurements available for M. n. alpicola and
M. n. gaddi populations been taken during the same season,
the statistical results would have been even more striking.
The type series consists of nine birds collected on March 25
and 29 at from 6,000 to 7,800 feet on Ak, Kohu, and Manearli
Daglari near Elmal, Antalya, in south Turkey. The gonads
were little enlarged and the birds were still feeding in flocks.

Rance: Occurs on the highest mountain tops in the Bey
and ‘Taurus mountain ranges of south Turkey and probably
on Mounts Lebanon and Hermon; resident but descending to
about 6,000 feet in winter.

Remarks: The only other record of this species from south
Turkey is that of Danford (1878, [bis 20: 28) who included
the species in his list *twith some hesitation” on the basis of a
sight record on Anas Dag in the Taurus north of Adana. Snow
Finches were observed by Tristam (1868, [bis 10: 208) on the
peaks of Mounts Lebanon and Hermon. I failed to find the
species on Boz Dag, Izmir (ca. 7,100 feet), or Ulu Dag (Burs:
8,343 feet) in mid- and late April. It is doubtful whether there
are any other mountains in western and northwestern Asia
Minor high enough to support breeding populations of Snow
Finches, so that M. n. fahrettini is separated from the Euro-
pean populations of the species. On the other hand, it may
well occur through the anti-Taurus and in Kurdestan and
therefore be continuous with the Iranian populations, but it
has not yet been found in southeastern ‘Turkey or northern
Iraq.

Five adult and two juvenal specimens of Snow Finch, M. n.
nivalis, from Greece constitute only the second record of this
species from that country verified by specimens. Reisor (1895,
Ornis Bal. 3: 23) found the bird on Vardusia, Makatsch (1950,
Die Végelvelt Macedoniens: 117) probably saw the bird on
Olympus, and Flach (in litt.) recorded Snow Finches on Par-
nassos. The specimens are from Vardusia and Parnassos, ‘The
species was not found on any of the Peloponnesian mountain
tops in spite of repeated searches.

In their distribution the populations of Snow Finches show
the type of disjunction common to glacial relicts. It is possible

June 28,1961 Aegean Bird Notes from Turkey 15

that when the climate of the Eastern Mediterranean was more
rigorous during the retreat of the Wtrm glaciation, many of
the mountains throughout the Aegean basin may have har-
bored populations of these Snow Finches. As the climate grew
warmer and the snow disappeared from all but the highest
peaks, extensive suitable habitats disappeared and the disjunct
distribution of today came about. The south Turkey popula-
tion, which shares the tendency toward a grayish head and a
short bill with the European population, is evidence that such
must have been the past history of the species in the eastern
Mediterranean.

The new subspecies is named for Fahrettin Ozgecil of the
Turkish Forest Department, who accompanied me on my trav-
els in the western sector of his country.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to the following persons for aid in arranging
this trip and for hospitality received while making the collec-
tion in Turkey: Ambassador Ellis O. Briggs, Athens; William
A. Helseth, Ankara; Orhan Sagnak, forest director of Icel;
Zubeyir Akyildiz, forest engineer in Ankara; and Fahrettin
Ozgecil, chief forest engineer in Antalya. Without their gen-
erous aid the trip would not have been so fruitful. I have
borrowed specimens from the American Museum of Natural
History and have discussed taxonomic points with Dr. Charles
Vaurie. Dr. S. Dillon Ripley has examined some of the material
with me. This research was conducted while I was a National
Science Foundation predoctoral fellow.

Harvard MCZ Libra’

oe eae
an

—

ae

an
en an Carne
OP POAT NSS eae ael

Re ne eG Ie ee LO iN epee tne OS IO Le

pio EG Oe eet et oti atin iin Goon Oo

pin Pega pe pete et en ean armani aiaae

a ce paper eee ASIA DA LOTS jis
ee ei eae es or

: Sper err ~*~

ted
eT genteel
Sar 4

PT"
pe

rere
Se
Nett

‘esc
Pea eS