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Names lacking in the Key (1 Viewer)

Björn and Martin, thanks for your contributions re betsilei and nattereri.
From the plate I agree that Ornismya nattereri is a synonym of Augastes scutatus, and have added it to the Key.
I am in a quandary regarding extinct birds. A good starting point is Hume & Walters 2012, Extinct Birds, which treated taxa which have become extinct within the last 700 years. More recent is the comprehensive list of Tyrberg, Lagerqvist & Jirle, 2017, Utdöda arter under Holocen fram til 1500, which deals with the Holocene (c. 11,000 BC) to 1500. I am inclined only to treat those birds which may be considered to have been extant in the modern period (e.g. reliable contemporary accounts, descriptions and illustrations, remains found in middens). However, even though most of them are not in HBW & BLI Illustrated Checklist, for the sake of completeness I will enter all the names found in Hume & Walters 2012 and in Tyrberg et al. 2017, in the Key in due course (when I have sorted out the living birds!)
 
Thank you, Björn, re the missing laurentei. The name Elachura laurentei La Touche, 1923, is in Peters' Check-list, 1964, X, p. 297 (as a synonym of Spelaeornis formosus) but I overlooked it - old age creeping on!
 
drovoni as in "Callirhynchus drovoni" BONAPARTE 1854 (ex Verreaux, in text), here.

Also mentioned here (p.71):
"(it was later described as masesus in "Comptes Rendus," XLII, p. 822, 1856) ...
... which is here.

What "drovoni" means? Or who a possible Mr. Drovon was? I have´t got a clue!

Or is this only a typo for "Callirhynchus Devronis" VERREAUX 1852 (here)?

Even if so, maybe Bonaparte, in this his version, meant to spell the name in a correct way (i.e. as devronis is also this far unexplained?)
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On page 24 of Bonaparte's article about DeLattre's collections in California and Nicuragua he says Call. drovoni is from Guayaquil . Perhaps MM Verreaux had a collecter there named Drovon?
 
Bonaparte's French was sometimes a bit convoluted, and he often passed very quickly over various subjects, which made him hard to follow. It wasn't 'drovoni' (as per Mark) which he said in the Delattre reprint to be from Guayaquil; it was another species that he there tentatively identified as "Call. peruvianus, Lesson". And it was neither 'drovoni' (as per Björn), nor this other species (as per Zimmer), that he later described as masesus; this was still another bird.

[Bonaparte 1854]:
Ajoutons [...] au singulier genre Callirhynchus, outre Call. drovoni, Verreaux, une troisième espèce plus petite, à bec pâle, venant de Guayaquil : Minimus, cinereo-subvirens, uropygio concolore : fascia alari alba : rostro pallido. Ne serait-ce pas Call. peruvianus, Lesson?
= Let's add [...] to the peculiar genus Callirhynchus, besides Call. drovoni, Verreaux, a third species, smaller, pale-billed, coming from Guayaquil : [Latin starts] Very small, slightly greenish grey, with the rump of the same colour : with a white wing band : with a pale bill. [Latin ends] Would this not be Call. peruvianus, Lesson?

(Callyrhynchus peruvianus Lesson 1842 is the type of Callyrhynchus Lesson 1842 by original monotypy: [OD].)

[Bonaparte 1856]:
La même chose se reproduit dans le genre américain Callirhynchus, Less. L'espèce que nous avons décrite, d'après l'exemplaire du Muséum, n'est nullement l'espèce type dont l'auteur a fait présent, je crois, à un musée de Belgique; j'en ai acquis une nouvelle preuve en étudiant les manuscrits de Lesson , qui contiennent, avec le dessin original de son type, une foule d'autres figures et de renseignements précieux pour la science. Espérons que le Muséum, auquel la famille du défunt offre généreusement une préférence désintéressée, ne laissera pas fuir l'occasion d'acquérir un pareil trésor. MM. Verreaux ont décrit une troisième espèce, sous le nom de Callirhynchus drovoni, et je joins ici la phrase caractéristique d'une quatrième, qui vient d'être déposée dans notre grand établissement national avec d'autres Fringillides non moins précieux.
» CALLIRHYNCHUS MASESUS, Bp. Majusculus; cinereo-virescens ; subtus albidus ; gula pectoreque nigris, maculis binis jugularibus albis : speculo alari albo : cauda ex toto cinerea : rostro, subtus praesertim, albicante. »
= The same thing happens again in the American genus Callirhynchus, Less. The species that we have described, after the specimen of the Muséum, is not the type species which the author presented, I think, to a museum of Belgium; I acquired a new proof of this by studying Lesson's manuscripts, which include, along with the original drawing of his type, many other figures and pieces of information valuable to science. Let's hope that the Muséum, to which the family of the deceased generously offers a selfless preference, will not let the chance to acquire such a treasure pass. Messrs. Verreaux described a third species, under the name of Callirhynchus drovoni, and I add here the characteristic phrase of a fourth one, which was just deposited in our great national institution along with other, no less precious, Fringillids.
[Latin starts] » CALLIRHYNCHUS MASESUS, Bp. Fairly large ; greenish grey ; whitish below ; with the throat and the breast black, with two white jugular patches : with a white wing speculum : with the tail wholly grey : with the bill, particularly below, whitish. » [Latin ends]

Note that 'drovoni' could never be available as the name of a new species from either of these two publications, as the bird is nowhere described.
 
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Fair enough guys, thanks for explaining, sorry for wasting your time.

Mea culpa

Björn

PS. Sigh! I really should have learnt by now; to stay away, simply stay away, from those French text! ;) ... I will try. No guarantees.
 
Björn I think it is worth asking the question. In a 1889 Mémoires de la Société zoologique de France volume 3, it mentions M. Devron having a specimen of a hybrid Perdix. When I followed the cite to Degland et Gerbe's Ornithologie Europeenne he is refered to as M. Drevon.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/32502#page/84/mode/1up .
It mentions the bird was recu de Grenoble which I do not think means M. Drevon is from there. So I want birth and death dates on M. Drevon along with a snappy bio as soon as possible!
 
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Devron ... Drovon ... Drevon!?

That could be an explanation of why we know so little of these names!

At least the guy behind the latter version collected other animals than the "Callirhynchus" Seedeater*, here.

More than that (and this) I know nothing of him.

Björn
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*"Callirhynchus" = "Callyrhynchus" = Sporophila
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When I followed the cite to Degland et Gerbe's Ornithologie Europeenne he is refered to as M. Drevon.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/32502#page/84/mode/1up .
It mentions the bird was recu de Grenoble which I do not think means M. Drevon is from there.
Indeed: it's the bird that would come from Grenoble; without being really explicit, the sentence might be read as implying that it had to travel to reach Drevon, hence that the latter resided elsewhere (at this time).

OTOH, Bouteille 1843 [here] mentioned a bird specimen (a white yellowhammer) that he said was "chez M. Drevon, à Grenoble" = at M. Drevon's, in Grenoble. In Vol. 2 of the same work [here], Bouteille cited Drevon again, adding that he was "gantier" = a glover... But this was almost a quarter of a century earlier than Degland & Gerbe's work, and might as well be entirely unrelated to what these authors reported, I think.

This is not good in a 1948 document it says: Unfortunately, the name of Mr. Drevon has not left a trace among the traveling naturalists or ... only two specimens of this bird: "... one in my own collection, and another in that of M. Verreaux of Paris.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/235567#page/59/mode/1up .
In this work (Berlioz 1948), Drevon's name is quoted from the registers of the collections of the Muséum, which said that a particular hummingbird specimen had been "acquis par échange de M. Drevon" = acquired by exchange from M. Drevon in 1864.
The label of the same specimen was also quoted by Simon 1923 [here] as reading: "Ornismyia, Eucephala smaragdocœrulea Gould, acquis en échange de M. Drevon en 1864, Brésil." = Ornismyia, Eucephala smaragdocœrulea Gould, acquired in exchange from M. Drevon in 1864, Brazil.

In [Google Books], several publications from the years 1850-60 mention a Drevon, naturaliste, à Paris.

A (less successful?) colleague of Parzudaki?
 
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Well done Mark! One small step forward ...

Today's updated HBW Alive Key:
devronis
Although dedicated to 'M. Devron' by J. Verreaux 1852, this is probably a misspelling for M. Drevon (fl. 1860) French ornithologist, collector. The eponym was spelled drovoni by Bonaparte 1856 (Mark Brown in litt.) (subsp. Sporophila peruviana).
But James, why -56? And not -54?
 
Jules Verreaux himself spelled the name drevonis in 1869 [here].
(With this, I'm not even sure the 'probably' is still justified. Well done to Mark from me as well.)
 
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The HBW [very] Alive Key now gives us:
devronis
Although dedicated to 'M. Devron' by J. Verreaux 1852, this is probably a misspelling for M. Drevon (fl. 1860) French naturalist, collector. The eponym was spelled drovoni by Bonaparte 1854 and Bonaparte 1856, and drevonis by J. Verreaux 1869 (Mark Brown and Laurent Raty in litt.) (subsp. Sporophila peruviana).
... who "fl." (flourished, was alive) all the way until at least 1864 (see the latter link in Post #32, alt. Laurent's in #33).

Well done, guys! Now I feel less guilty bringing it up ;)
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Another one missing in today's Key

The generic name Davisona MATHEWS 1935 (here) replacement (as pre-occupied) "for Hydrornis Milne-Edwards, 1867, not Blyth 1843."

Named for ... I can only guess! Who knows?

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Sorry, James, I should have checked Hydrornis by Milne-Edwards 1867, before posting! And that's obviously why Davisona wasn't, isn't (and shouldn't be) included in the Key. I should have suspected that.

Mea culpa!

Björn
 
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