{"title":"Radiographic analysis of Meinertzhagen's redpoll specimens: testing a purported case of fraud","authors":"R. Prŷs-Jones","doi":"10.25226/bboc.v142i2.2022.a9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v142i2.2022.a9","url":null,"abstract":"Summary. Based on a detailed analysis of the external appearance of redpoll Acanthis skins, Knox (1993) explicitly accused the collector Richard Meinertzhagen of having stolen specimens from the Natural History Museum bird skin collection and re-labelling them. Here, I test Knox's results using independent evidence of the internal appearance of the specimens in question derived from radiography. Radiographic evidence strongly supported Knox's overall conclusion of fraud by Meinertzhagen but revealed limitations inherent in his attempt to determine the collection history of bird skins using external appearance alone. Although results in such investigations are inherently likely to be probabilistic rather than certain, a multi-factorial approach, taking a wide array of evidence into account, is most likely to engender confidence in the outcome.","PeriodicalId":38973,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the British Ornithologists'' Club","volume":"142 1","pages":"244 - 253"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83338221","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pteruthiidae and Erpornithidae (Aves: Corvides): two new family-group names for babbler-like outgroups of the vireos (Vireonidae)","authors":"G. Sangster, A. Cibois, S. Venkatrami Reddy","doi":"10.25226/bboc.v142i2.2022.a8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v142i2.2022.a8","url":null,"abstract":"The Old World genera Erpornis Hodgson, 1844, and Pteruthius Swainson, 1832, were long considered babblers Timaliidae This was based on gross morphology (in Erpornis , similarity to Yuhina ; in Pteruthius , bold plumage pattern reminiscent of, e.g., the laughingthrush genus Garrulax ) and biogeography (presence alongside many ‘other’ species of babblers in the Oriental region), rather than phylogenetic analysis. Paradisaeidae*, Laniidae*, Corvidae*, Melampittidae, Ifritidae*, Monarchidae*, Machaerirhynchidae, Artamidae*, Cracticidae*, Rhagologidae, Aegithinidae, Pityriasidae*, Malaconotidae*, Platysteiridae*, Vangidae*, Sylviidae, Zosteropidae, Timaliidae, Pellorneidae, Leiotrichidae, Polioptilidae, Troglodytidae, Buphagidae, Sturnidae, Mimidae, Urocynchramidae, Ploceidae, Amblyospizidae, Viduidae*, Estrildidae*, Passeridae, Fringillidae, Plectrophenacidae*, Rhodinocichlidae*, Emberizidae*, Calyptophilidae*, Mitrospingidae*, Thraupidae*, Cardinalidae*, Passerellidae*, Phaenicophilidae*, Icteridae* and Parulidae*.","PeriodicalId":38973,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the British Ornithologists'' Club","volume":"44 1","pages":"239 - 243"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89111257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cicero Simão Lima Santos, Cecília Licarião, Weber Girão, Renata Beco, F. K. Ubaid
{"title":"First description of the nest and eggs of Ceará Leaftosser Sclerurus cearensis, with a review of the breeding biology of genus Sclerurus","authors":"Cicero Simão Lima Santos, Cecília Licarião, Weber Girão, Renata Beco, F. K. Ubaid","doi":"10.25226/bboc.v142i2.2022.a2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v142i2.2022.a2","url":null,"abstract":"Summary. Sclerurus is a genus of morphologically uniform, strict understorey, leaf litter specialists. We present the first description of the nest and eggs of Ceará Leaftosser S. cearensis from north-east Brazil and review breeding data for the genus. Based on three nests, the nest of S. cearensis was classified as cavity/with-tunnel/low cup, the type typical of the genus. The nests were excavated in banks at a mean height of 1.48 ± 0.22 m above ground. Tunnels measured 50.83 ± 4.25 cm and terminated in an expanded, globular chamber where a small cup of sticks harbours the two white eggs. Eggs at one nest measured 25.7 × 19.8 mm and 24.3 × 19.6 mm, and weighed 5.1 g and 4.5 g, respectively. Available breeding data for the genus Sclerurus are remarkably uniform in all aspects and match our observations of Ceará Leaftosser.","PeriodicalId":38973,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the British Ornithologists'' Club","volume":"10 1","pages":"155 - 163"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72500377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The colourful journey of the Eurasian Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto","authors":"Hein van Grouw","doi":"10.25226/bboc.v142i2.2022.a3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v142i2.2022.a3","url":null,"abstract":"Summary. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Eurasian Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto was widely considered to be the wild ancestor of the domesticated Barbary Dove (domestic S. risoria), and even following its recognition as a species its taxonomic status was a source of confusion. Since 1900, and the species' massive geographic expansion (both naturally and by introduction) the two taxa have occasionally met. The resultant hybridisation is probably the cause of the large number of Eurasian Collared Doves with the aberrant pale colour of Barbary Doves in areas where hybridisation has occurred.","PeriodicalId":38973,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the British Ornithologists'' Club","volume":"2 1","pages":"164 - 189"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78441274","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
John-James Wilson, C. Fisher, Tereza Senfeld, T. J. Shannon, J. M. Collinson
{"title":"The tangled nomenclatural history of Haplopelia forbesi Salvadori, 1904: were Forbes and Robinson right all along?","authors":"John-James Wilson, C. Fisher, Tereza Senfeld, T. J. Shannon, J. M. Collinson","doi":"10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a7","url":null,"abstract":"Summary. The specimen in Liverpool known as Forbes' Lemon Dove, collected pre-1844 purportedly in Cayenne (French Guiana), was catalogued by Forbes & Robinson in 1900 as Haplopelia principalis, despite this species having been described from the island of Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea. As a result of the discrepancy in localities, the Liverpool specimen was subsequently described as a new species (Haplopelia forbesi) by Salvadori and suggested to be from West Africa. Over the course of the next century, the new taxon was subject to a variety of taxonomic treatments. To investigate the status and provenance of Forbes' Lemon Dove, we obtained a 472 bp cyt-b sequence from the specimen. This possessed 100% similarity with a Lemon Dove Columba (Aplopelia) larvata sequence from Príncipe and 99.79% similarity with a sequence of the same species from São Tomé. This suggests that Forbes & Robinson were correct that the specimen represents A. larvata principalis and was thus probably collected on Príncipe. However, more sequencing from across the Lemon Dove's range is required to resolve the taxonomy of this complex group and place Forbes' Lemon Dove more definitively.","PeriodicalId":38973,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the British Ornithologists'' Club","volume":"31 1","pages":"131 - 137"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85920577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Why may the same species have different elevational ranges at different sites in New Guinea?","authors":"J. Diamond, K. Bishop","doi":"10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a5","url":null,"abstract":"Summary. Species in mountainous areas have characteristic elevational ranges, but with some variation from site to site. Such variation has been studied extensively elsewhere in the world, but not yet for New Guinea bird species. Hence, we examined five sources of that variation for New Guinea birds: latitude, competition, slope, the Massenerhebung effect, and physical barriers. Decreases of species elevational ranges with latitude are illustrated by three sets of examples: 20 species confined to New Guinea's mountains, but which descend to sea level at higher latitudes in Australia (joined to New Guinea at Pleistocene times of low sea level); 13 sea-level populations of some of the same New Guinea upland species on New Guinea's Fly River bulge; and 11 populations on the Aru Islands (part of Pleistocene New Guinea and Australia). Many New Guinea species contract or expand their elevational ranges, associated with the presence or absence of competing congenerics, which segregate by elevation at sites of sympatry. The flat Karimui Basin at an elevation of 1,110 m illustrates effects of slope, because the basin supports populations of many species otherwise characteristic of the flat lowlands, and lacks populations of many hill forest species characteristic of the sloping terrain found at that elevation elsewhere in New Guinea. We provide three sets of New Guinea examples of the Massenerhebung effect described for mountains elsewhere in the world: shifts of species to higher elevations on large high mountains far from the sea than on small coastal mountains or isolated mountains. Finally, we suggest that very steep high ridges boxing in a watershed on the Foja Mts. constitute dispersal barriers that have prevented 33 species expected at that watershed's elevation from arriving or establishing themselves.","PeriodicalId":38973,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the British Ornithologists'' Club","volume":"39 1 1","pages":"92 - 110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80802706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS","authors":"","doi":"10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38973,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the British Ornithologists'' Club","volume":"125 1","pages":"1 - 4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77103405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds","authors":"W. Suárez","doi":"10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a3","url":null,"abstract":"Summary. All information relating to the Cuban palaeo-avifauna since the first published list in 1928 to the present, is summarised and presented as a catalogue with commentary. I update data on the composition, systematics and distribution of fossil and subfossil birds from Quaternary (Late Pleistocene-Holocene interval) deposits in Cuba, with a necessary critical review. Thirty-six taxa (30 extinct, two poorly represented and apparently also extinct, and four extirpated) are listed as valid records in Section I, under 14 families, with Teratornithidae the only extinct family grouping. Birds of prey and scavengers constitute 72.2% of these taxa, with Accipitridae (22.2%) and Falconidae (16.6%) the best represented, followed by nocturnal raptors. Sections II and III comment on and discuss material referred to 29 taxa, of which one is of dubious identity and the others misidentified and / or synonymised at class, family, genus or species level. Cuban neospecies currently known in paleontological localities throughout the archipelago are listed in Section IV; 49 are identified (14 considered today as endemic species, including six endemic genera) in 26 families.","PeriodicalId":38973,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the British Ornithologists'' Club","volume":"53 1","pages":"10 - 74"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85167694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Note on the nomenclature of Myrmothera guttata Vieillot, 1824 (Passeriformes, Thamnophilidae)","authors":"Christophe Gouraud","doi":"10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a2","url":null,"abstract":"Summary. Work on the publication date of Bonnaterre & Vieillot's Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique calls into question the priority of some names in use today. Among these Myrmothera guttata Vieillot, 1824, proves to be a junior synonym of a name introduced earlier. The possible reversal of precedence is studied here in compliance with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.","PeriodicalId":38973,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the British Ornithologists'' Club","volume":"84 1","pages":"5 - 9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80564339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marcelo Henrique Mello Barreiros, Mariana Tolentino, G. A. Leite
{"title":"Breeding ecology of Rufous Potoo Nyctibius bracteatus in central Amazonian Brazil","authors":"Marcelo Henrique Mello Barreiros, Mariana Tolentino, G. A. Leite","doi":"10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25226/bboc.v142i1.2022.a9","url":null,"abstract":"Summary. The smallest potoo, Rufous Potoo Nyctibius bracteatus is a little-known and inconspicuous species of the understorey in Amazonian terra firme forests, where it roosts by day. Currently, there are few published observations describing its natural history and reproductive ecology. We present data on nest and egg characteristics, nestling appearance, behaviour and development, and parental care, based on three different nests in three consecutive years at Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke, Manaus, central Amazonian Brazil. All nests had similar characteristics and the single egg at one nest was cream-coloured with brown spots. The young at one nest fledged when c.40 days old, but the other two nests were both predated by ant swarms, constituting the first report of such predation in the Nyctibiidae.","PeriodicalId":38973,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the British Ornithologists'' Club","volume":"22 1","pages":"145 - 152"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84703042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}