Parus subpalustris Brehm, 1855: 242 (Deutschland).

Now Poecile palustris palustris (Linnaeus, 1758). See Hartert, 1918a: 27, Snow, 1967c: 72, and Gosler and Clement, 2007: 711–712.

SYNTYPES: AMNH 455866, male, and AMNH 455867, female, both collected at Renthendorf, 50.48N, 11.58E (USBGN, 1959), Germany, on 4 January 1851; and AMNH 455868, immature female, collected in the Roda River Valley (5 Rodathal, as on label), Germany, on 1 June 1853. From the Brehm Collection via the Rothschild Collection.

COMMENTS: Brehm, in the original description, did not indicate a type or give the number of specimens he examined. Hartert (1918a: 27) listed the above pair as the ‘‘types,’’ noting that as all of the specimens were from Renthendorf, that was the ‘‘terra typica.’’ These two specimens are tied together and bear a single Rothschild type label. This does not represent the designation of a lectotype, and I consider all of the Brehm specimens labeled subpaulustris by Brehm and collected before the publication of the name in 1855 to be syntypes. The third syntype in AMNH was not listed by Hartert, but is labeled subpalustris by Brehm. It has been given an AMNH type label and included in the type collection. AMNH 455859–455868 were all cataloged as subpalustris and all except the three listed above were exchanged to ZFMK; if any or all were collected before 1855 and labeled subpalustris by Brehm, they are also syntypes.

Hartert (1918a: 27) synonymized subpalustris with P. p. communis, which Snow (1967c: 72) considered a synonym of P. p. palustris. Until recently palustris usually has been included in the broad genus Parus, and this is still preferred by some authors. Gill et al. (2005) suggested elevating five subgenera within Parus to generic status to reflect the phylogeny obtained in their study of mitochondrial cytochrome-b in the Paridae, and placed palustris in the genus Poecile. See David and Gosselin (2008: 19) for use of masculine endings with this genus.