The scientific name of Moltoni’s Warbler

 Moltoni’s Warbler has been known either as subalpine and moltonii. The latter name,

given by Orlando in 1937, has been in wide use, but as Baccetti et al. (2007) pointed out

subalpine is valid and has priority. The Temminck type specimen of subalpina is reputedly

long since lost due to insect damage (fide Baccetti et al. 2007), and requests to the Leiden and

Paris museums have not changed that.

The type was described (Temminck 1820b) as a female, but based on Temminck’s plate

(see below), its lead-grey upperparts, and prominent pink underparts, I conclude that the

specimen was a male. According to Temminck, the type had ‘a beautiful vinaceous color’

below. The adjective used (Fr. ‘vineuse’, vinaceous) is the same that Ridgway (1912) used

for such a pink, and because males of all other Subalpine Warbler populations possess

more orange-brown or reddish underparts it is probable that Temminck was struck by the

unusual and attractive pink of male Moltoni’s Warbler when he described subalpina. In his

Pl. 6, no. 2, a painting of subalpine shows an adult bird with lead-grey crown and mantle

typical of males, and pink, not orange-red, underparts. Temminck specifically states that

the bird in the said plate was the only known specimen, sent to Temminck by Bonelli,

making it the holotype by monotypy. There can be no doubt that Temminck’s plate refers

to this taxon, making subalpine the oldest available valid name, with priority over moltonii

Orlando, 1937.

That the type locality ‘near Turin’ could fit not only Moltoni’s Warbler but theoretically

also Eastern Subalpine Warbler is of subordinate importance given the existence of

Temminck’s plate and Temminck’s (1820b) statement that the plate depicted the unique

specimen. Furthermore, it clearly shows the characteristic tail pattern of Moltoni’s Warbler,

with the square white tips to the penultimate feathers excluding Eastern Subalpine Warbler.

Temminck published information on his Sylvia subalpina twice in 1820. First (Temminck

1820a) was the plate in August 1820, along with a wrapper giving the scientific name of

this and other taxa depicted in the six plates comprising this part of the Planches coloriées

of Temminck & Laugier, wherein Baron Laugier took no part in naming taxa (cf. Dickinson

2001). The second was a description in the Manuel d’ornithologie (Temminck 1820b), published in

October 1820 (see item 3681 in the Bibliographie de la France, issue no. 43, of 21 October 1820).

Interestingly, Temminck (1824) depicted a perfectly identifiable Eastern Subalpine

Warbler, presumably subspecies albistriata, in Pl. 251. The contrast between the dark rufousred

breast and white belly is striking. In the text, the bird is labelled as the male Sylvia

subalpina. The painting was based on a bird collected by a Mr Heckel in Silesia, Poland,

near the German border (if correct, obviously a spring overshoot since the usual breeding

range today runs south of the Alps east to south Bulgaria and western Turkey, and is not

thought to have been substantially different then). However, Pl. 251 appeared four years

later than Pl. 6 and does not depict the type of subalpina, which name must be linked to the

bird on Pl. 61.