A new species of Zoothera from the Himalaya (1 Viewer)

[l_raty]

Note also in the appendix, in support of molissima being Alpine and not Himalayan Forest Thrush:

However, Blyth (1842) stated that his T. mollissimus has the “ill shaped as in the Mavis Thrush”. This strongly supports the identity of mollissima with the Alpine Thrush, as the bills of all individuals of the Himalayan Forest Thrush we have studied are noticeably larger, heavier, more arched, and more hook-tipped than the bill of T. iliacus. It is scarcely conceivable that Blyth would have equated the bill shape of the Himalayan Forest Thrush with that of T. iliacus without further qualification of the obvious differences.

As discussed above, it is quite likely that Blyth's "Mavis Thrush" was Turdus philomelos rather than T. iliacus. The argument remains valid, however.

 

[James Eaton]

I haven't read the article yet, but was at Longcangau in Sichuan when PA and his team were stood in the middle of the road trying to trap a particularly difficult Sichuan Thrush - we didn't see the bird, but understand Birdquest (PM) saw one singing at the top of a tree in May/June 2015. A tough species to see!

As for the Himalayan species, what to do about those wintering birds which some of us have seen, eg at Naini Tal - what are / were they?!

cheers, alan

The Sichuan Thrush is quite a common bird at Longcanggou, having put the effort in last year knowing about this, we saw and heard several here, and also at Balang Shan.
I'm still missing 'Yunnan Thrush' unfortunately, haven't even heard that one - frustrating!

 

[Richard Klim]

The Hindu, 25 Jan 2016: Bird named after Salim Ali.

 

[Richard Klim]

IOC World Bird List

www.worldbirdnames.org/updates/update-diary/
www.worldbirdnames.org/updates/proposed-splits/

2016 Jan 28: Post proposed split and new sp of Plain-backed Thrushes on Updates/PS

(Notes potential confusion/conflict of proposed names 'Himalayan & Sichuan Forest Thrush' with Forest Thrush Turdus lherminieri.)

 

[Andy Adcock]

I've only skimmed this as usual so can someone clarify what the birds in Nepal would be, mollissima?

From the HBW Alive site.

Subspecies and Distribution
Z. m. whiteheadi (Stuart Baker, 1913) – NW Himalayas (N Pakistan).
Z. m. mollissima (Blyth, 1842) – C & E Himalayas (from N India) E to S China (SE Xizang, SW Sichuan, N Yunnan).
Z. m. griseiceps (Delacour, 1930) – SC China (N Sichuan S to C & E Yunnan) and NW Vietnam (W Tonkin).


Andy

 

[Richard Klim]

... can someone clarify what the birds in Nepal would be, mollissima?

Alström et al 2016...

... Alpine Thrush [Z [m] mollissima] breeds in the Himalayas from northern Pakistan to at least western Arunachal Pradesh, India [ie, including Nepal] and in Sichuan province, China. ...
... Himalayan Forest Thrush [Z [m] salimalii] breeds from Sikkim and Darjeeling, India, to northwest Yunnan. ...

[See also Fig 1 (distribution maps).]​

 

[Andy Adcock]

Thanks Richard.

Andy

 

[l_raty]

http://avianres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40657-016-0037-2, on April 7, 2016 :

Integrative taxonomy of the Plain-backed Thrush (Zoothera mollissima) complex (Aves, Turdidae) reveals cryptic species, including a new species

Per Alström, Pamela C. Rasmussen, Chao Zhao, Jingzi Xu, Shashank Dalvi, Tianlong Cai, Yuyan Guan, Ruiying Zhang, Mikhail V. Kalyakin, Fumin Lei and Urban Olsson

Avian Research 2016 7:1 | DOI: 10.1186/s40657-016-0037-2 | © Alström et al. 2016
Received: 30 October 2015 | Accepted: 4 January 2016 | Published: 20 January 2016

This article has been temporarily removed from the public domain at the request of the journal's editors. The article will be restored as soon as possible once it has been updated to address issues that were not identified prior to publication.

(The original article is registered with ZooBank: http://zoobank.org/References/4395ADCD-469B-4D2D-8DFE-27A2EA5DA489 (registration was by Per Alström, on 01 Nov 2015) in a way that seems compliant to the Code e-only amendment.
So is the naming of Zoothera salimalii: http://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/4D5CA56B-E103-4BE6-80D2-6097BBDFD92D
In my understanding, if correctly registered, this original paper is absolutely not retractable: it remains published in the form in which it was originally issued, even if an "updated" version is issued. This "updated" version would be published in the sense of the Code only if it is registered anew with ZooBank and evidence that this new registration had occurred is added to the "updated" paper, in which case the "updated" paper would constitute a wholly new [second] publication. Unless there is something in the original version and its registration that is wrong enough to make it unpublished, or to make the name unavailable in this version, Z. salimalii cannot be proposed in the "updated" version, as it is, for ever, preoccupied.)

Does anybody know what happened?

 

[Richard Klim]

Does anybody know what happened?

I noticed some time after publication that it had been completely removed from the journal website for a period (without explanation), and assumed that it was just a mistake. But given that it was published with open access, it's also curious that only a preview was posted on ResearchGate, rather than the full paper.

 

[mb1848]

Fumin Lei and Per Alstrom two of the authors of the paper are also Deputy Editors in Chief of Avian Research. "removed from the public domain at the request of the journal's editors". Laurent do you recommend publishing any changes in an Errata page?

 

[Richard Klim]

http://avianres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40657-016-0037-2, on April 7, 2016 :

This article has been temporarily removed from the public domain at the request of the journal's editors. The article will be restored as soon as possible once it has been updated to address issues that were not identified prior to publication.

Back online, publication date unchanged (20 Jan 2016)...
avianres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40657-016-0037-2

The original version of this article was replaced with the current version at the request of the journal’s editors. Amendments have been made to the non-scientific content of the article.

Wrt post #2, Ruiying Zhang is an additional author.

 

[l_raty]

Wrt post #2, Ruiying Zhang is an additional author.

Actually no -- Melanie (or the source she quoted) simply overlooked his name in the announcement. But this illustrates the problem quite well: we are less than three months after the publication, the published work is not easily available on the Web any more, and uncertainties about the authorship of the name are already starting to appear...

On p.34 of the updated version:

Nomenclatural acts
This work represents a marginally modified version of an earlier published work that was registered in ZooBank with the LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.orgub:4395ADCD-469B-4D2D-8DFE-27A2EA5DA489, which was available on 20 January 2016.

In other words, the file now available from the publisher is explicitly unpublished. As far as nomenclature goes, it is only a secondary source.

Same page, version of record:

Nomenclatural acts
The electronic edition of this article conforms to the requirements of the amended International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature 2012), and hence the new name contained herein is available under that Code from the electronic edition of this article. This published work and the nomenclatural act it contains have been registered in ZooBank, the online registration system for the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature. The ZooBank Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs) can be resolved and the associated information viewed through any standard web browser by appending the LSID to the prefix “http://zoobank.org/”. The LSID for this publication is: urn:lsid:zoobank.orgub:4395ADCD-469B-4D2D-8DFE-27A2EA5DA489. The electronic edition of this work was published in a journal with ISSN 2053–7166, and has been archived and is available from the digital repository http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/.

...I don't seem to be able to find it at PMC, however.
I have attached the published version (downloaded 21 Jan 2016).

 

[mb1848]

On version 1 on the last page is 16 articles/books referred to but in version 2 on page 39 is only three documents listed and so is slightly shorter. I have not figured out what was cut out but luckily it is the non-scientific bits. .
Re Turdus rostratus listed in paper as O. rostrata:
According to Gray (Cat. Mamm. & Birds of Nepal, 1846, p. 79), the present species was
described by Hodgson as Tudus rostratus in the ' Quarterly Magazine ' about the year 1826, from a specimen discovered by the last-named naturalist in Nepal. I have never seen the original description of Turdus rostratus, and the name must not be allowed to take precedence over that of Vigors, until the quotation in the 'Quarterly Magazine' can be verified. Until this is done, the name of Turdus rostratus must remain as a nomen nudum, being attached only to the unpublished drawings of Hodgson's in the British Museum.
Seebohm 1881 or 1898?
Richmond has interesting card that says that Hodgson described____allophasia in an Oriental Quarterly.
http://www.zoonomen.net/cit/RI/SP/Turd/turd00923a.jpg .
Gould mentions a ground thrush specimen from the Nepal valley which I think is Turdus rostratus from Hodgson and says it was in the Hon. E. I. Co. collection.
https://archive.org/stream/centurybirdsfro00Goul#page/XXII/mode/2up/search/monticola .
Eugene Jacquet in Journal Asiatique for 1836 lists Turdus rostratus years before Blyth’s mollissima.
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k931286/f408.image.r= .
I have recently seen an article about Buddhism by an anonymous writer an H from the Nepal Valley in a 1827 Quarterly Oriental Magazine.

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Zoothera salimalii, Z. griseiceps

Alström P., Rasmussen P.C., Chao Zhao, Jingzi Xu, Dalvi S., Tianlong Cai, Yuyan Guan, Kalyakin M.V., Fumin Lei, Olsson U. (2016). "Integrative taxonomy of the Plain-backed Thrush (Zoothera mollissima) complex (Aves, Turdidae) reveals cryptic species, including a new species.". Avian Research 7 (1). doi:10.1186/s40657-016-0037-2

IOC Update Diary June 4

Accept Himalayan Thrush and Sichuan Thrush

 

[Peter Kovalik]

TiF Update June 5, 2016

Thrushes: Based on Alström et al. (2016), the Plain-backed Thrush, Zoothera mollissima, has been split into:

Alpine Thrush, Zoothera mollissima
Himalayan Thrush, Zoothera salimalii
Sichuan Thrush, Zoothera griseiceps
There is probably another species here, “Yunnan Thrush”, but futher work is necessary to confirm this.

 

[antshrike69]

I'm fresh back from Sichuan, where we had a singing Sichuan Forest Thrush in typical scrubby forest habitat, giving typical song. The same day, I saw a "Plain-backed" Thrush foraging on open scree boulder slopes much higher up, just below the Balang Shan pass at ?3500m. This bird was presumably Alpine Thrush, although it was obviously not singing.