On subspecies taxonomy and nomenclature of far eastern subspecies of magpie Pica pica Linnaeus, 1758 of the group "Serica"

This paper is devoted to the specification of the nomenclature of the subspecies of blue-winged magpies - group «serica» with the results of their morphometric analysis. Our research of the geographic variability of the «serica» group which showed presence of 3 subspecies forms, was published earlier (Глущенко и др. 2016; Kryukov et al . 2017). All these forms, according to our data, are similar in plumage color, but quite reliably differ in size and proportions (Fig. 3, 4, 5; Tables 1, 2). Magpies from the Amur basin and northeastern China north of Jilin province are distinguished by a short tarsus (in the overwhelming majority of specimens less than 50 mm) and a relatively small bill. In most works this form appears under the name P. p. jankowskii Stegmann, 1928. Magpies, distributed to the south: in most of the Korean Peninsula, in eastern China south of the Jilin province, on the islands of Honshu and Taiwan, as well as in the southern part of Japan, - are very similar in size to each other, while noticeably different from P. p. jankowskii with a longer tarsus (usually more than 50 mm), a slightly larger bill, and, on average, a shorter wing and tail. All these populations should be considered within the subspecies P. p. serica Gould, 1845. Magpies with a distinctly isolated position are inhabiting the arid regions of the Gobi and Alashan Deserts to the south to the northern part of the Gansu province. The length of the wing and tail of birds of this subspecies is much longer than that of jankowskii and serica , the tarsus is also longer than that of jankowskii , and the bill is smaller than that of serica . This form was described by B.K. Stegman under the name P. p. alashanica Stegmann, 1928 from northern Alashan. It is not entirely clear for what reason, but the opinion was been strengthened in the Russian ornithological literature that the name «P. p. andersoni Lönnberg, 1923» belongs to the Alashan form. Which was given to birds from the eastern part of Shanxi Province and Hubei Province (Portenko 1939; Rustamov 1954). The same, as it turned out, an erroneous interpretation was used in works with our participation (Глущенко и др. 2016; Kryukov et al . 2017). Another point of view provides for the existence of only two subspecies of the «serica» group: southern P. p. serica and northern P. p. andersoni (Madge 2009; Del Hoyo, Collar 2016; Song et al . 2018). The name jankowskii is reduced to synonyms for the andersoni form, the distribution area of which covers the south of the Russian Far East, the extreme northeast of China and Korea. The plumage colour features of the P. p. andersoni listed by A.Lönnberg (Lönnberg 1923) in the original description does not allow at all to distinguish any of the three forms of the group «serica» , and their manifestation is associated with the state of plumage depending on the time of extraction during the year (Fig. 1), as well as from the storage period of the specimens in the collection. At the same time, the original description lacks information on the sex and age of the compared specimens. In the case of magpies, males and females significantly differ in size from each other, and individuals of the first year, as a rule, are somewhat smaller than older individuals (Tables 1, 2). The wing length given in the description (about 198 mm) can refer both to most age-sex groups of serica and to first year females of jankowskii . The small size of the bill of the described form (30-33 mm), as well as the large size (35-37 mm) typical from the point of view of A.Lönnberg, specifically for P. p. serica , can belong to all three forms of blue-winged magpies. The differences in the legs size from the original description also most closely resemble the visual differences from comparing a male and a female of any one of the three forms. Statistically significant differences between serica and jankowskii consist only in the length of the tarsus (greater in serica) , despite the fact that the thickness of the paws in these two subspecies is similar. The region given in the original description, from which the specimens of the new form originate - the east of Shanxi and Chihli (now Hebei province), according to the materials we reviewed, is occupied by the serica subspecies. Terra typica «P. p. andersoni» , according to Ch.Vaurie (1959) is Huai Lai Hsuen, Hain Pao-an, Hopeh, China (40°25'00.0"N, 115°27'00.0"E), that is place northwest of Beijing, located 500 km south of the distribution area of the jankowskii subspecies and about 400 km east of the arid landscapes occupied by the alashanica form. Thus, the name «andersoni» should be synonymous with P. p. serica . Magpies from the Gobi and Alashan deserts should be called P. p. alashanica Stegmann, 1928, and the northern populations, confined mainly to the Amur basin - P. p. jankowskii Stegmann, 1928.