» ae ai ~ Soap ’ a ee - Nae eee ee ——— Seeearte er a — pe? HARVARD UNIVERSITY eu S| LIBRARY OF THE Museum of Comparative Zoology Palla Bs Re NivEh ; i UNiVENSE : YALE PEABODY MUSEUM'- oF NaTurRAL History Number 63 July 9, 1962 New Haven, Conn. BRIEF COMMENTS ON THE THRUSHES S. Ditton RiIeLtey In Postilla no. 13, 1952, pp. 1-48 et seq., 1952, 1954, I published a fairly extensive review of this large and sprawl- ing subfamily of the Old World Muscicapidae. More recently I have been gathering data on this assemblage for Peters’ Check- list, and so it appears worthwhile to list here a few of the changes and revisions which have been made subsequent to my earlier publication. Certain large general works have been of the greatest use such as Chapin’s (1953) section on thrushes in his monograph on birds of the Congo, Vaurie’s (1959) monograph on Palearc- tic birds and Mackworth-Praed and Grant’s (1955) volumes on birds of eastern Africa. In addition shorter papers have been of value such as that of White (1961) on African thrush genera. I have been very grateful for comments and help re- ceived from Messrs. Clancey, Deignan, Dilger, Charles Hart- shorne, Ivanov, Johansen, Mmes. B. P. Hall and E. Koslova, Messrs. Lees-Smith, Meinertzhagen, Terence Oatley, George Watson, White, and Winterbottom. After correspondence and discussion with these various authors, as well as with the editors of the Chech-list, Messrs. Greenway, Mayr, and Paynter, it appeared wise to retain the Prunellidae as a monotypic family close to the thrushes. I 2 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 63 believe my preliminary revisional work of 1952 has served a good purpose, however, in raising comments and criticism. Without such preliminary work and the subsequent eddies and fluctuations of opinion aroused, little long-range revisional work would be possible. Erythropygia, Cercotrichas, and Pinarornis. Following the suggestion of White (1961), I have grouped Cercotrichas and Pinarornis next to Erythropygia. I do not agree to merging Cercotrichas with Erythropygia. This is a rather distinct species and such field workers as Meinertzhagen (1954) would keep them decidedly separate. Pogonocichla and Erithacus. Moreau’s interesting paper (1951) offers evidence that Pogonocichla with two included species has characters which set it sufficiently apart to be kept as a separate genus. Little published work has convinced me that the genus Erithacus can- not be kept as an expanded genus. Japanese workers, among them Morioka (in litt.), point out the close resemblance of the Japanese robin, akahige to the European rubecula, contra Lack (1954). More recently Hall (1961) has suggested adding the species gabela, described from Angola in 1957, to the genus Erithacus. Cossypha and Nenocopsychus. The reasons advanced by White (1961) for transferring Nenocopsychus to Cossypha seem provocative, and I ac- cordingly have followed this suggestion, having already in- cluded Dessonornis (Bessonornis auct.) earlier. Pseudocossyphus. I have removed the species sharpet and imerina from Cossypha and placed them in Pseudocossyphus following Good- win (1956) whose suggestions and evidence I have found most helpful. July 9, 1962 Brief Comments en the Thrushes 3 Rhyacornis and Chaimarrornis. li I also follow Gocdwin (1957) in keeping Rhyacornis—as a separate genus for the small tropical redstarts with such dis- tinctive alternate plumages, and placing Chaimarrornis close to Monticola following Oenanthe. Grandala and Sialia. It is not obvious to anyone apparently where Grandala should be listed. I leave it near Sialia for lack of a better linear arrangement suggestion, not out of any conviction on the basis of anatomy or phenotypic characters. Phaeornis. From personal observation in the field and listening to songs I have decided that my earlier feeling that Phaeornis was close to Myadestes following Stejneger (1887) was wrong. Phaeornis has two species on Kauai Island which overlap ecolo- gically. The larger, a subspecies of obscurus, has a broad bill which resembles a solitaire. I believe it is a secondary adapta- tion to coexistence in an overlapping niche, the separate first invader being small and possessing a much smaller bill. In powerful song and apparently in habits these birds seem far closer to Catharus especially the central American nightingale- thrush group. Stizorhina. Stizorhina may well prove to be a flycatcher. Unpublished work in this laboratory (Ames ms.) shows un-turdine-like indi- cations in the syrinx of S. fraseri although the evidence is by ne means compelling, as Myadestes also has a very similar syrinx. Myrmecocichla, Pentholaea and T'hamnolaea. I follow White (1961) in combining Pentholaea with Myrmecocichla, although I keep Thamnolaea distinct, both on 4 Postilla Yale Peabody Museum No. 63 account of slight plumage differences as well as partially of habits, as Cave and Macdonald (1955) emphasize for T'. coro- nata. I have moved the Buff-streaked Chat, bifasciata, to Oenanthe on further examination, convinced that in plumage and behavior it fits better with the wheatears. Catharus and Platycichla. A few species changes have been made in the arrangement of Catharus on the advice of various tropical American special- ists such as Messrs. Blake, Paynter, Skutch, and Wetmore. I have placed Platycichla as a separate genus on the advice of several authors including Messrs. Bond and Phelps (personal communication ). Turdus. For advice on the large genus T'urdus I have been much indebted to Dr. Chapin and Mrs. Hall on African species and specimens in the British Museum. This huge genus with more than sixty-five species is a difficult one to arrange and I have felt constrained to list the species regionally beginning with Africa and ending with the New World. I have valued Dr. Wetmore’s comments on ignobilis and plebejus which I have separated as two species. I have also moved swalesi near to our North American robin, feeling that this species is merely a relict robin. Several problematical genera have been removed from the arrangements of thrushes of earlier authors just as others have been added to it. Some of these former are T'urnagra, the New Zealand “thrush,” obviously not a thrush at all, vide Oliver (1955), who places the genus in a separate family based on the presence of mouth bristles, union of maxillo-palatines, long first primary and lack of spotted young. Namibornis (or Bradornis) herero,the south West African flycatcher, Achaé- tops, another South West African genus, inadvertently as- signed to the thrushes by the South African Ornithological Society List Committee (1958), and “Cercomela” buryi which July 9, 1962 Brief Comments on the Thrushes 5 may or may not be a Parisoma, but certainly with its wing structure appears to be a warbler rather than a chat, are all problematical species which I would include in the Musci- capinae, Timaliinae and Sylviinae respectively. Lirerarure CIrep Cave, F. O. and J. D. Macdonald, 1955. Birds of the Sudan, Edinburgh, p. 275. Chapin, J. P., 1953. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 75A: 480-593. Goodwin, D., 1956. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 76: 143-4. , 1957. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 77: 110-113. Hall, B. P., 1961. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 81: 45-6. Mackworth-Praed, C. W. and C. H. B. Grant, 1955. African Handbook Birds, ser. 1, 2: 227-333. Meinertzhagen, R., 1954. Birds of Arabia, pp. 220-2, 266-7. Moreau, R. E., 1951. Ibis, 93: 383-401. Oliver, W. R. B., 1955. New Zealand Birds (2 ed.) Wellington, p. 524. Second Report of the S. A. O. S. List Committee, 1958. Ostrich, vol. 29, (1), p. 37. Stejneger, L., 1887. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 10: 90. Vaurie, C., 1959. Birds Palearctic Fauna. London, pp. 333-419. White, C. M. N., 1961. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 81: 117-119, 150-152, 164-168. | Harvard MCZ Libra’ IWAQDIINAN 3 2044 066 305 236 Ce ee Due a Ant Wi '@) | ee eee - pero. es i EO etl ea eee ets eee te a gw pe tr ee, ne a OT cael - ote Sat Fag pec Bene eT OTT ces — te ee a IIE pnt ey OI = = meaner pce anaes ne ar’ ee ties EF gE Pater Laem Sieh Sr SON Refine PER EN ae uA ie uray ELEN Pe =,