Question on eponym for Carl Jakob Sundevall (2 Viewers)

[Taphrospilus]

The Key to Scientific Names - Birds of the World lists

Carl Jacob Sundevall (1801-1875) Swedish ornithologist, systematist (syn. Anthoscopus minutus, subsp. Butorides striata (ex Ardea plumbea Sundevall, 1870), syn. Camaroptera brachyura, syn. Camaroptera brevicaudata, syn. Coereba flaveola bartholemica, syn. Ducula pacifica, syn. Euplectes orix, subsp. Zosterops pallidus).

So we do have Camaroptera sundevalli Sharpe, RB, 1882 OD ser.4:Jahrg.30=no.157-160 (1882) - Journal für Ornithologie - Biodiversity Heritage Library or Vol 7 (1883) - Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum - Biodiversity Heritage Library

I am now confused especially as Camaroptera brachyura brevicaudata (Cretzschmar, 1830) are the same specie as Camaroptera brachyura (Vieillot,1820)

So what is the description of Sharpe and what is the other synonym or where to find the other synonym?

 

[l_raty]

I doubt there is another synonym.

Camaroptera sundevalli Sharpe 1882 appears to be a nomen novum for Camaroptera olivacea Sundevall 1850 (arg.7(1850) - Öfversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps-akademiens forhandlingar - Biodiversity Heritage Library ), deemed preoccupied by Sylvia olivacea Vieillot 1817 (t.11 (1817) - Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle - Biodiversity Heritage Library ), a species for which we now use the name Sylvia brachyura Vieillot 1821 (pt.2 - Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois règnes de la nature - Biodiversity Heritage Library ), i.e., the Green-backed Camaroptera, Camaroptera brachyura.

The main part of the original description of Camaroptera olivacea Sundevall 1850 pertains to the same bird as well (only the sides of the head and forehead are grey, the tail is brown and the entire body green), although Sundevall then also cited an "aliud specimen" (other specimen) from further north, which was obviously a Grey-backed (head, back and tail grey). Maybe this confused Sharpe ? In any case, all the specimens he cited under his Camaroptera sundevalli in the 1883 Catal. Birds Brit. Mus. seem to have been from the (Southern African) range of Grey-backed Camaroptera (current N Cape, Botswana, Namibia...). However, as Camaroptera sundevalli Sharpe 1882 is a nomen novum, it must remain in the synonymy of the name it was proposed for, even if the interpretation of this name changes. (Thus, it appears in the synonymy of Camaroptera brachyura brachyura in the Peters' Check-list : v.11 (1986) - Check-list of birds of the world - Biodiversity Heritage Library .)


PS -- I'm a bit at a loss as to why we are using Sylvia brachyura Vieillot 1821 as the valid name of this bird, rather than the older Sylvia olivacea Vieillot 1817. The latter was still in use well into the 20th C (e.g., Chapin 1953 http://hdl.handle.net/2246/1644 ). So far as I can see, Zedlitz, in 1911 Jahrg.59;Suppl.2 (1911) - Journal für Ornithologie - Biodiversity Heritage Library , claimed that Sylvia olivacea Vieillot 1817 was preoccupied by "Sylvia olivacea Latham 1790"... and this was, apparently, uncritically followed. "Sylvia olivacea Latham 1790" (v.2 (1790) - Index ornithologicus, sive, Systema ornithologiae - Biodiversity Heritage Library ), however, is but a recombination of Motacilla olivacea Gmelin 1789 : there is certainly no room to claim primary homonymy here.

 

[mb1848]

PS
Vieillot scientifically named two completely different birds on the same page S. olivacea, one of a Latham bird and one the Vaillant bird.
t.11 (1817) - Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle - Biodiversity Heritage Library .
t.3 (1802) - Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique - Biodiversity Heritage Library .
pt.2 - Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois règnes de la nature - Biodiversity Heritage Library .
See page 9.
https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA0012723X_1409 .
Type area of S. olivacea-brachyura

 

[l_raty]

Vieillot scientifically named two completely different birds on the same page S. olivacea, one of a Latham bird and one the Vaillant bird.
t.11 (1817) - Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle - Biodiversity Heritage Library ..

On this page, Vieillot :

• named the Vaillant bird, rightly claiming the authorship of the name for himself :

LA FAUVETTE OLIVERT, Sylvia olivacea, Vieill., pl. 125, fig. 1, 2 des Oiseaux d'Afrique

Levaillant's bird is at: t.3 (1802) - Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique - Biodiversity Heritage Library .

• used an identical name, which he attributed to Latham, for another bird, for which he also cited a plate by Peter Brown :

LA FAUVETTE OLIVÂTRE DES INDES, Sylvia olivacea, Lath. lllust. of zool. tab. 14

Latham had used this name in the genus Sylvia in his the second volume of his Index zoologicus (1790) :

90. olivacea.
S. olivacea, corpore subtus albo, capistro flavescente.
Motacilla olivacea, Gmel. Syst. i. p. 964.
Olive Warbler, Brown. Ill. p. 33. t. 14. — Lath. Syn. iv. p. 473. 86.

HABITAT in Zeylona magnitudine modularis.​

Caudam frequenter elevat.​

But, in the above, Latham was explicitly taking the species name from Gmelin (1789), vol. 1, p. 964, whis is where the bird had been named cinerea, in the genus Motacilla : v. 1, pt. 2 - Caroli a Linné ... Systema naturae per regna tria naturae - Biodiversity Heritage Library
Brown's Illustrations of zoology (1776, no scientific names) is : Nouvelles illustrations de zoologie - Biodiversity Heritage Library . The bird in question is on plate 14 as indicated by Gmelin, Latham and Vieillot; it is actually described on p. 32 (not 33, as wrongly given by Gmelin and Latham; Vieillot did not refer to the text).
Latham's treament of this bird in A general synopsis of birds (1783, no scientific names) is at: v.2:pt.2 (1783) - A general synopsis of birds - Biodiversity Heritage Library

The name originally given to this bird was Motacilla olivacea Gmelin 1789, which is certainly not a primary homonym of Sylvia olivacea Vieillot 1789. Latham moved this bird to the genus Sylvia, thus making it Sylvia olivacea (Gmelin 1789) -- this is a mere recombination and has no nomenclatural standing whatsoever. Vieillot merely cited this combination from Latham -- this action has no nomenclatural implications either. It's probably hard to be completely certain of what Brown's bird was (Plain Prinia ?), but you can be pretty sure that a Sri Lankan bird would not nowadays be regarded as part of the strictly African genus Camaroptera, hence Motacilla olivacea Gmelin 1789 cannot be a secondary homonym of Sylvia olivacea Vieillot 1789 either. As a consequence, Sylvia olivacea Vieillot 1789 is, evidently, not preoccupied in Camaroptera.

I still contend that this name should be in use.

 

[l_raty]

Zimmer 1948 https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v065n01/p0126-p0127.pdf -

Vieillot cited two different birds under the name Sylvia olivacea on the same page of the Nouveau Dictionnaire. The first of these is Motacilla olivacea Gmelin [Syst. Nat., 1 (2): 964, 1788] although credited to Latham (Ind. Orn., 2: 532, 1790) who first assigned it to the genus Sylvia. I am unable to identify this bird, ostensibly from Ceylon, and I can find no authority who has ever succeeded in doing so. In fact, except for a few authors of very early date, I can find no reference to it. In view of the scanty basis for Gmelin's name--a wretched drawing and a few lines of discussion in Peter Brown's Illustrations of Zoology: 33, pl. 14, 1776--it may be as well to leave it unidentified. In such uncertainty it will preoccupy the specific name olivacea only in the genus Motacilla where no conflict is evident.
This is not true of Vieillot's second Sylvia olivacea, based on Levaillant. This appears to be the African species more recently called Camaroptera brachyura (Dr. James P. Chapin kindly informs me) by certain authors who were possibly confused by the two usages of Sylvia olivacea on the same page of Vieillot and inclined to adopt line priority (for which there is now no justification under the International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature). It appears certain that this second Sylvia olivacea of Vieillot is quite valid but in any case it precludes the usage of the same name by Giraud.

With this I am certainly more inclined to agree.

 

[mb1848]

I agree with anything John Todd Zimmer says. He wrote Catalog of the Ayer Ornithological Library. If only he had access to the BHL. Here is plate 28 mentioned in his article.
livr.1-5 (1845-1850) - Esquisses ornithologiques - Biodiversity Heritage Library .