Names lacking in the Key (1 Viewer)

janvanderbrugge said:

Right now before reading your answers, I tried to get Laubmann's Vögel von Paraguay on the screen, because I remembered I had borrowed that work in my more youthful years (from a university library) and had taken notes, but "Bioheritage" did not cooperate this time. . .

Click to expand...

Laubmann cites posneri under Sporophila ruficollis, which he regarded as the same species as S. hypochroma (while Hayes, Scharf & Ridgely in the Condor paper linked by Paul above -- also [here] -- cited it under S. hypochroma, which they treated as distinct). But he doesn't say much: merely a reference in the synonymy, and a single sentence in the text -

Sporophila ruficollis Cabanis
[...]
Sporophila plumbeiceps posneri Bertoni, Rev. Soc. Cient. Parag. II, 6, 1930, p. 256 (Monte Sociedad).
[...]
ein weiteres unter der neuen Bezeichnung posneri beschriebenes Exemplar aus der Sammlung Posner erwähnt Bertoni aus Monte Sociedad im Chaco Paraguayo.

Click to expand...

Snippets in Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?redir_esc=y&id=SZtXAAAAMAAJ&q=posneri

Laurent,
! Yo sigo admirando tus conocimientos e insistencia en excavar detalles! Jan vdB

Señor Félix Posner (again)

A better scan of El Hornero 5 (no.3), compared to the one in my post #237, from 1934, is to be seen here (see p.454), which text (lucky for me!) is possible to copy and paste into Google Translate, which turns out as follow:

FÉLIX POSNER. — This good friend from Paraguay settled in the country in 1906, having devoted himself to preparations of national zoology, standing out from the earliest times for his collections of bird skins, in which he worked for 17 years.

While in Villarrica, in 1907, he made an ornithological collection, acquired by Alberto Breyer and classified by Dr. Roberto Dabbene, who published in the "Annals of the Museum of Natural History" of Buenos Aires, Vol. 23, 1912, the work comprising 80 species, two new ones for the Paraguayan region.

He acted as a trainer in 1907, in the Botanical Garden of Santísima Trinidad, moving from there in 1908, to Villa Hayes (Chaco Boreal). He spent some time afterwards at Monte Sociedad (today Villa Benjamín Aceval) on the «Isla del Paraguay Oriental, located in the Paraguayan Chaco» (1) about 20 kilometers north of Villa Hayes. From 1915 began a collection made up of exemplary skins, numbering 350, with 141 species, which was acquired on April 19, 1928 by Dr. Andrés Barbero. It is surely the most important one made in that part of the Paraguayan Chaco, under the point of view of fauna (zoogeography).

It was studied by Mr. Arnaldo de Winkelried Bertoni, whose classification work is published in this edition. Mr. A. de W. Bertoni ...

Mr. Posner was born on July 14, 1873 in Hungary, studied in Budapest. Out of love for Nature, he entered Mr. Rosonorasky's workshop. He then went to Stuttgart to Mr. Merkle's workshop and from there to North Africa, with Mr. Paul Spotz, returning to Hungary, where he established a workshop.

Attracted by the descriptions of its fauna, he came to Paraguay, where he began his beneficial work for the knowledge of fauna and especially that of the Chaco birds.

NOTE: The initials found on the labels of the Posner collection are: VS = Villa Hayes; M. S. = Monte Sociedad. From the dates on the collection cards, it will be possible to know when the birds are migrating. Any publication related to the Paraguayan zoogeography in Paraguay should take into account the data found in publications made in the United States of America and in the Argentine Republic, on this topic.

Click to expand...

(don't blaim me if it didn't turn out the proper way )

However, nothing is/was told, or even indicating anything of his possible Death, (not that I can tell anyway). If he was born in 1873 (and I see no reason to doubt that such was the case) he could very well have been alive in 1834 (when the piece in El Hornero was published), or simply Mr Robebar hadn't heard of him, or about him, since Posner left Paraguay in the early 1920's (i.e. 1922, or -23), who knows?

Could be worth trying to link him/follow the clues as given above, for anyone keen (or keener).

Good luck finding him (in full)!

Björn
--

Calalp said:

However, nothing is/was told, or even indicating anything of his possible Death, (not that I can tell anyway). If he was born in 1873 (and I see no reason to doubt that such was the case) he could very well have been alive in 1834 (when the piece in El Hornero was published), or simply Mr Robebar hadn't heard of him, or about him, since Posner left Parauay in the early 1920's (i.e. 1922, or -23), who knows?

Click to expand...

In Hornero, 8: 115 (e.g., here), he is cited in a published address, in a list of socios desaparecidos (disappeared members) of the Sociedad Ornitológica del Plata, to whom the speaker wished to pay a tribute of remembrance.
This suggests he died before 1941.

I assume he is not to confuse with this "Félix Posner" (on p.52), at that point/claimed as, living in Belgium "depuis le ... ", or "sedert 12 octobre 1923" (in French resp. Dutch). That guy seems to have been of Polish origin, and born 20 years later (in 1893!). A bit to young to travel to Paraguay in 1906, I think. But some of it might/could fit ... ?

Maybe worth digging into?

Most likely not.

/B
--

Calalp said:

But some of it might/could fit ... ?

Click to expand...

I had ran into this too, but assumed he was a namesake.

The document is the official publication of a request to obtain Belgian nationality, by a Mr. Félix Posner, born in Lodz, Poland, 14 Feb 1893; living in Belgium (ca. 1955) since 12 Oct 1923, working as a street vendor in Charleroi (Prov. Hainaut); married to a wife of Polish origin; and with a child who had already become a Belgian.
I don't really see anything that would suggest the same person except the name.

Thanks, thereby; "Most likely not" = not.

/B

Ay Señores, my goodness! I would never have thought that a question about a mostly forgotten name posneri in ornithology would yield such an amount of information, this is quite impressive! If comparable material would be gathered for more collectors and taxidermists (let alone, authors), we would need extra libraries attached to HBW Keys for all that stuff. And it is not even complete right now! For myself, I hope to be able to add some scraps to all that, if age and condition will allow. Björn, I will keep to your directions, of course; I do use the search-modus in BF, in posneri it gave zero, as you know, which now has changed altogether! Stay sheltered, mykke tak (;^)
Houdoe, Jan van der Brugge

Lo how the rows are growing . . . Low in rank and omitted (George Carmichael)?

With the several lowei, lowi and lowii eponyms I found a nice mix-up in my files, so I started a check and tried to arrange things properly. Here is the result. New for me - and very old too - was the extinct Madeira Rail, and without the possibility to check the HBW Alive Key, I got the impression that the Jacana ssp. for Dr. George Carmichael Low has been omitted. The arrangement in my system is according to the year of birth (I did not yet look for such information on this "new" name G.C.Low, Adriaan van Rossem did not mention it, of course).
And so we go on plowing, said the fly to the ox. Enjoy, Jan van der Brugge

lowei (Rallus): Reverend Richard Thomas Lowe (1802-1874), England, naturalist, botanist, malacologist, chaplain on Madeira, 1832-1854. Fossil. Name was given by Josep A.Alcover et al. in 2015.
lowei (Apus/Micropus/Tachymarptis aequatorialis, Fregata magnificens, Selasphorus/Stellula calliope, Sphenocercus/Sphenurus/Treron apicauda/dus): Captain Dr. Percy Roycroft Lowe (1870-1948), British Army, surgeon, ornithologist at Britsh Museum of Natural History, 1919-1935. Names Micropus æ.l. and Fregata m.l. were given by Bannerman in 1920 and 1927, name Sphenocercus a.l. by Delacour & Jabouille in 1924, the name Selasphorus c.l. by Griscom in 1934. See also lowii (Coereba).
lowei (Alethe/Dryocichloides/Sheppardia, Cyanomitra/Nectarinia olivacea, Pterocles quadricinctus, Sylviella), lowii (Sylviella): Willoughby Prescott Lowe (1872-1949), British ornithologist, explorer, collected in America, Asia, Africa (Sierra Leone, ca. 1920). Name Sylviella lowii was given by Ogilvie-Grant in 1911, name Pterocles q.l. by C.H.B.Grant in 1914, Cyanomitra o.l. by Vincent in 1934, Alethe l. by C.H.B.Grant & Mackworth-Praed in 1941.
lowi, lowii (Aerodramus maximus/Collocalia/C.maxima, Megapodius, Sarcops/S.calvus): Sir Hugh Low (1824-1905), England, colonial administrator, naturalist; travelled to East Indies, in 1844, for the Dutch Oostindische
Compagnie, in 1845 secretary of the First Radjah; colonial secretary (Koloniaal Schatbewaarder = colonial treasurekeeper) of Labuan, 1848-1850; Resident of Perak, Malaya, 1877-1889. Publ. “Serawak, its inhabitants and productions”, 1848. Names Megapodius L., Sarcops L. and Cypselus L. were given by Sharpe in 1875, 1877 and 1879.
lowi (Jacana spinosa): Dr. George Carmichael Low. Name was given by A.J.van Rossem in 1938: “This race is named for Dr. George Carmichael Low in recognition of his work in connection with the Charadriiformes.”
lowii (Coereba/C.flaveola): Dr. Percy Roycroft Lowe (1870-1948), British ornithologist at British Museum of Natural History, 1919-1935. See also lowei (Apus etc.). Name Coereba l. was given by Cory in 1909.

Brian John Marples in 1952 gave the name to a fossil Penguin: Archaeospheniscus lowei Marples, 1952.

Brian John Marples, 1952
Early Tertiary Penguins of New Zealand
New Zealand Geological Survey, Palaeontological Bulletin 20: 1-66

The Penguin was named after Dr. P. R. Lowe (Dr. Percy Roycroft Lowe) , who did important work on fossil Penguins, and studied the specimen from New Zealand.

Also was the name lowei was given by Yuong-Nam Lee in 1997 to an ichnospecies (a footprint): Magnoavipes lowei Lee, 1997.

Yuong-Nam Lee, 1997
Bird and Dinosaur Footprints in the Woodbine Formation (Cenomanian), Texas
Cretaceous Research 18: 849-864.

Etymology. In honor of Bill Rowe, whose mapping of the tracksite provided the basic framework for this study.

I don't know why he called the ichnospecies "lowei" instead of "rowei", but throughout the the study Lee uses the name "lowei".

Magnoavipes was a long-legged wading bird adapted to shallow waters, like modern cranes (Gruiformes).

Fred

janvanderbrugge said:

. . . Low in rank and omitted (George Carmichael)?
...

Click to expand...

Re. "Jacana spinosa lowi" VAN ROSSEM 1938, (here) [if this ssp. (and guy) isn't incl. in James's Key MS is unknown to me] ...

Jan, Obituaries after the Scottish Ornithologist and Wader/Shorebird expert Dr. George Carmichael Low (1872–1952), can be found in (for example/s); Transactions of the London Natural History Society 32: p.116 (1953), or in British Medical Journal 1952; Aug 9; 2(4779, pp. 341–344 (here), alt. in Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 46 (here), or elsewhere, as in either one listed here. He´s also in Wikipedia here.

I assume it's him.

However, enjoy!

Björn

PS. Some other lowi (and lowei) Birds was dealt with (back in 2014) in my old thread Some additional etymological information – Part VI (see No.6), here (with some tiny additional pieces compared to what you've got in your files this far).
--

Thanks, Jan. New entry in Key MS: • Maj. Dr George Carmichael Low (1872-1952) Scottish parasitologist, co-founder (1907) of the Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, ornithologist (Jan van der Brugge in litt.) (syn. Jacana spinosa gymnostoma).
Thanks also, Fred; interesting remarks about lowei/rowei, but the taxa are too ancient for inclusion in the Key.

Quote James:
Thanks, Jan. New entry in Key MS.
Thanks also, Fred; interesting remarks about lowei/rowei.

You're welcome, James, Björn, Fred, as is the added information.

A side-track to Chinese and Portuguese speech and Scandinavian grammar!
From my childhood I remember the story that Chinese people could not pronounce the R, and used L instead. The Dutch word for tasty is "lekker" and when we children ate peanuts (pinda's in Dutch) we mockingly said "lekkel, pinda's!" (because Chinese traditionally were peanut-sellers). I thought of that when reading Fred's remark on Yuong-Nam Lee's Magnoavis lowei: "I don't know why he called the ichnospecies lowei instead of rowei (for Bill Rowe), but throughout the study Lee uses the name lowei."
Linguistically there is a somewhat similar situation in Portuguese, the two letters are somehow related in the human speech: although Portuguese has many words with L, it has branco for blanco, bianco, blanc in other Roman languages, nobre, nobreza for noble, noblesse, dobro for double, prata for Spanish plata = silver, prazer for placer, pleasure, obrigado for obligado etc.

Where does Scandinavian come in? Not in the alphabet, but in the verb endings. Quotes: "Some other lowi (and lowei) Birds was dealt with"(Björn),
"the classical training that some other people here has", "the words you quote seems to indicate that" (Niels Larsen, 2016). Remarkable, this; the cause of this must be the lack of difference in verb endings in Scandinavian languages for singular and plural. It does not make things hard to understand, it is just striking and interesting.
Well, in some regards the Northern languages are ahead of our Dutch, with the complicated grammar which offers so many pitfalls for my compatriots. In another topic I told a few things about Afrikaans, related to Dutch and simplified in a high degree, but there is little chance of getting things easier
in Dutch grammar, only in the daily talk of people . . . (English has the same difficulty, keep things as they always were, throughout, not thruout)
Björn and Niels, please don't change your writing customs, there will be less left to comment for me! ^)
Stay well, I will enjoy your contributions in any form. Consider this as talk in Covid-times, I'm mainly home-bound.
Groeten, Jan van der Brugge

Fred Ruhe said:

Etymology. In honor of Bill Rowe, whose mapping of the tracksite provided the basic framework for this study.

I don't know why he called the ichnospecies "lowei" instead of "rowei", but throughout the the study Lee uses the name "lowei".

Click to expand...

He also uses "Lowe" in the acknowledgements (p. 862) :

I thank Mr Bill Lowe who has long been a good collaborator in fossil hunting. He kindly provided me with field maps and photographs.

Click to expand...

Thus, the easiest interpretation may be that there was a typo in the dedication statement...
(And not in the scientific name itself -- which is what we, perhaps too often, tend to assume by default, in cases of conflict between a name and the information that comes with it.)

Philotherus Gray 1855

This is listed by Neave, but not Richmond, and I don't find it in my copy of the old Key.
The name was attributed by Gray to "Kaup, 1851", but I found no original publication of a name by Kaup that would match this.
Gray made it a Tyranninae, but the type species is a Parulidae, currently classified in Myiothlypis Cabanis 1850.

Possible etymology: φιλόθηρος, fond for hunting ?

(Gray also made Hydrozetetes "Schiff" = Bonaparte 1854 a possible synonym of this name on p. 146 of his work. He repeated the synonymy, still with a query, in 1869.)

Muscieapa rivularis Wied, Reise nach Bras., II, 1821, p, 103 ;
Beitr. Naturg, Bras,, III, ii, 1831, p. 789. I could not find theses. If of any help?

mb1848 said:

Muscieapa rivularis Wied, Reise nach Bras., II, 1821, p, 103 ;
Beitr. Naturg, Bras,, III, ii, 1831, p. 789. I could not find theses. If of any help?

Click to expand...

1821: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/45439934 (footnote)
1831: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2783537

Emperor Khaï-Dinh's (hybrid) Pheasant

James, as I (thanks to Mark) stumbled upon this one (while recently dealing with "Delacour's Fireback", a k a "Delacour's Bornean Fireback") and as I cannot tell (due to the shut-down of the dear old Key) if you're missing it, or if you already have this particular one in your MS, I will post the following anyway, regarding the (not-so-obvious Eponym) ...

imperialis as in:
• the invalid "Hierophasis imperialis"* DELACOUR & JABOUILLE 1924 (here):

Named in honour of H. M. Khaï-Dinh, Emperor of Annam.

Click to expand...

... which ought to be Emperor Khaï Dinh (1885–1925), Emperor of Annam/French Indo-China (today's Vietnam), here. He's also in/on Wiki (here), as: Khải Định (born Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Đảo), "12th Emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty ...", "Emperor of Đại Nam under French protectorate of Annam and Tonkin" ... and onwards.

Either way; enjoy!

Björn
_____________________________________________________________
*Hybrid: Lophura nycthemera x Lophura edwardsi (at least according to here, even if they, (MNHN),
have the Authorship as: "Delacour & Jabouille, 1926", though linked to the same reference/OD?).

Great work Björn !! An article that includes this taxon.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ed52/0ed442727312f7f9bcd3ca2edbf224813c80.pdf .
Says: "Two important types have not been found.
The male Imperial Pheasant Lophura imperialis Delacour & Jabouille, 1924" Which explains why MNHM only shows the female. As to 1924 or 1926 I was wondering if the museum was dating when imperialis was listed in Les Oiseaux de L'Indochine Française published from 1923 to 1930 by the same two authors but I cannot find it online.

Hennache, A., et al. 2003. Hybrid origin of the imperial pheasant Lophura imperialis (Delacour and Jabouille, 1924) demonstrated by morphology, hybrid experiments, and DNA analyses. Biological journal of the Linnean Society 80 (4): 573-600.

Abstract
The imperial pheasant Lophura imperialis was described in 1924 from a captive pair that was obtained in Vietnam, and that became the sole founders of a captive line in France. Always considered a highly endangered and mysterious species, and despite concerted searches, L. imperialis was not found again in the wild until one was trapped in 1990, and the captive population gradually died out. Its status as a distinct species was unquestioned until the late 1990s when the possibility of a hybrid origin was raised. To elucidate the taxonomic status of L. imperialis, we studied all the existing museum specimens, carried out captive hybridization experiments, and analysed mitochondrial DNA and microsatellites. All these lines of evidence demonstrate congruently and conclusively that L. imperialis is an occasional hybrid between silver pheasant L. nycthemera and Edwards's pheasant L. edwardsi, with the 1990 bird probably being a hybrid between L. nycthemera and Vietnamese pheasant L. hatinhensis. Thus L. imperialis has no taxonomic standing and should be removed from lists of species of conservation concern. However, hybridization with L. nycthemera may pose a further threat to the survival in the wild of the endangered L. edwardsi and L. hatinhensis.

Click to expand...