Eisentraut's Honeyguide, that could have been "Serle's", or even "Coe's" ditto! (1 Viewer)

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Here's some additional info (incl. one single additional detail, a second given name, of the dedicatee), also with a brief summary of the many twist and turns behind the discovery (and the many names) of this certain Bird – a somewhat unfortunate, and infected (or even poisoned) story, leading up to today's ...

eisentrauti as in:
• Yellow-footed Honeyguide Melignomon eisentrauti LOUETTE 1981, a k a Eisentraut's Honeyguide:

... collected by Prof. M. Eisentraut on 17 december 1957 ... , the first specimen ever collected. Therefore, I propose to name this species ... Melignomon eisentrauti sp. nov.

In today's Key explained as:

eisentrauti
Prof. Dr Martin Eisentraut (1902-1994) German zoologist, collector in West Africa (subsp. Estrilda nonnula, Melignomon (Peter Colston (pers. comm.) had intended to name the Yellow-footed Honeyguide ‘Melignomon serlei’ after Dr William Serle, the Scottish ornithologist who collected the first specimen, but generously sent a copy of his paper, “to Dr. M. Louette in October 1980, shortly after it had been submitted for publication. Dr. Louette has since seen fit to describe the new honeyguide without informing us of his intention ... His paper came to hand while this one was in proof and it has been possible to do little more than delete the proposed name and substitute eisentrauti for it in the text and table” (Colston 1981). “Before describing the taxon, M. Louette had offered to send [the holotype] to the British Museum (Natural History) in order to enlarge the existing material for comparison. However, this offer was declined, despite the intension [sic] of a possible co-authorship” (Louette et al. 2010)) (see serlei)).

... which indeed was a commemoration of Professor/Dr. Martin Eisentraut (1902–1994), the German zoologist (even if he mostly was dealing with Mammals, Amphibians or Reptiles), whose full name (apparently) was Martin Bruno Eisentraut ... who, in his book Die Wirbeltiere des Kamerungebirges, 1963, misidentified this species as a female specimen of Zenker's honeyguide Melignomon zenkeri.

In short: Born 21 October 1902, in Großtöpfer, Geismar, Thüringen, Germany ... died 5 July 1994, in Bonn [however, not in 1981 as earlier have been claimed! (in some other texts, elsewhere)].

Mr./Herr Eisentraut made three journeys* to the Cameroon (Kamerungebirges), and it was during his third trip he collected that certain specimen that made his name remembered in the Nomenclature of Ornithology.

Note: Though, it was not (as Louette claimed in the OD) "the first specimen ever". The actual very first specimen of this species was collected by William Serle, the previous year, in 1956 (i.e. 2 August 1956), even if Serle himself (also) misidentified it as a specimen of Zenker's honeyguide M. zenkeri (though, he believed it was an immature one).

Enjoy!

Björn

PS. Also compare with the post #94/update in thread BOW Key (here).

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* Eisentraut, M. 1963. Die Wirbeltiere des Kamerungebirges – Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Faunenwechsels in den verschiedenen Höhenstufen [Vertebrate Fauna of Cameroon Mountain – With particular reference to its division into altitude zones]. Verlag Paul Parey, Hamburg & Berlin:

• "Kamerunreise 1 (1938)"; mid-January until early April
• "Kamerunreise 2 (1954)"; early January until late April (left Germany in Dec. -53, started from Tiko, SE Cameroon, 8 January -54. Originally planned for 1940, but WWII came in between)
• "Kamerunreise 3 (1957/58)"; Mid-October 1957 until Mid-April 1958

["Melignomon zenkeri ... 1 Exemplar ... 17.12. 57 ...", p.199]

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

"serlei" as in the intended (alt. imagined) and/or at least desired:
• all invalid (alt. even all irrelevant?) 'Melignomon serlei'* [unpublished, never realized, never in print, but strongly intended! Only retold (as far as I know), and possibly revealed for the very first time (at least for a large audience) when mentioned in the dear Old (now defunct) HBW Alive Key, in its entry for eisentrauti (which was very similar to what we're told in today's Key, above].

... which (indeed) was intended at (alt. hoped for) the Scottish doctor and collector William Serle (1912–1992), who collected the very first specimen of this species (contrary to Louette's claim in the OD of 1981!), in secondary forest at Bakebe, Cameroon, on 2 August 1956 ... (even if Mr Serle himself, at that point, believed he'd caught a juvenile/immature M. zenkeri).

Clearly this case have caused some heated feelings in the British (alt. British-Swedish) versus Belgian camps.

Maybe noteworthy is the very last sentence in Louette's comment (from 2010), not included in the Key's quote above: "The statement made by Colston & Curry-Lindahl (1986:59) on the matter should be rectified accordingly."

Apparently (and somewhat understandingly) Louette still felt (and maybe still feel) somewhat mistreated by Colston's & Curry-Lindahl's remark/statement/insinuation (from 1986, on p.59):

On taking over responsibility for writing up the Nimba collection, Colston wrote a description of the new species based on the whole series, and submitted it in 1980 to the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Shortly afterwards Louette requested, from the BM(NH), a loan of the Nimba series for comparison with the single specimen he had collected in 1980 at Grassfield, close to the Nimba Research Station, though the staff were unaware of his visit. Instead Colston sent him a copy of his own unpublished description. Without informing Colston or the Laboratory of his intentions, Louette (1981a) [i.e. the OD] published a description of the new species, under the name M. eisentrauti. Colston's description was published soon afterwards, since publication had progressed too far for the paper to be withdrawn or altered, beyond changing the name to eisentrauti and adding a footnote.

One wonder how clear those intensions were uttered, on both sides ...

Björn

PS. In today's Key we find Mr Serle (as well commemorated in other Birds) as:

serlei
Dr William Serle (1912-1992) Scottish physician, ornithologist in the Cameroons 1937-1957, RAMC 1939-1945, Minister in Church of Scotland 1959-1987 (subsp. Amirafra rufocinnamomea, subsp. Phyllastrephus xavieri) (see eisentrauti).

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*Even if it would have been published, by Colston, a few months post-Louette (which it wasn't), see Colston 1981 (here, see footnote), this, the intended, 'serlei' would (still) have been nothing but a junior synonym of eisentrauti.

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

And finally ...

Coe's as in:
• the English alternative name "Coe's Honeyguide"* for the bird most often called Yellow-footed Honeyguide Melignomon eisentrauti LOUETTE 1981, a k a Eisentraut's Honeyguide

= the British (alt./a k a; British-Kenyan) naturalist and animal ecologist Malcolm Coe (1930 –?**), whose full name was/is (?) Malcolm James Coe, ... of the Department of Zoology, Ecology Research Group, at Oxford University (from 1968 until he retired in 1995), according to here, leader "of the first team of scientists, ..." arrived at Nimba in 1964 [i.e. the Field station, Nimba Research Laboratory, located in Liberia, West Africa] ... who was the first (also in 1964) to question the prevailing identification of this species (up to that point all earlier, however few, observations/specimens were believed to be of M. zenkeri). Mr Coe started to wonder simply after having spotted the bird in question "... within the compound of Nimba Research Laboratory". That's a good start for a period of Field Work!

Shortly afterwards Coe wrote a letter to Curry-Lindahl (at that time Chairman of the Nimba Research Committee): "I watched it several times during the day and felt sure it was a honeyguide, but one that was quite unknown to me, ..."

Onwards, the same Coe (together with Edward S. Yallah) collected three additional specimens (in -64, and -66), making their case/suspicion even stronger, even more convinced, that they had an undescribed species in the closest surroundings.

Also note that, the fairly recent book Birds New to Science: Fifty Years of Avian Discoveries, by David Brewer, 2018 (here, p.125) claims that Colston intended to name this bird for Malcolm Coe (which is clearly in error, as James apparently have been in contact with Colston personally).

It was the Swedish ornithologist Kai Curry-Lindahl who wanted, and suggested, its English name to be "Coe´s Honeyguide" (not its scientific name, which one easily can believe by the text in Brewer's book). However, this vernacular name didn't stick (in the minds of most birders).

I guess Curry-Lindahl simply found the whole situation awkward and pitiable, and hoped to acknowledge someone who (in his mind) truly deserved it.

Well, that's it! That's all I have to say in this particular topic.

eisentrauti (as well as 'serlei', and Coe's) ... over and out!

Björn

PS. This English name has earlier been dealt with in thread Coe's Honeyguide (not a scientific one), here.

PPS. He's not to be confused with Malcolm Coe (born 1949), Professor of Astronomy at the University of Southampton (in the U.K).

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* [in The Birds of Mount Nimba, Liberia, by Peter R. Colston & Kai Curry-Lindahl (1986) we find the following phrase (on p.56)]: "Malcolm Coe had so much to do with the discovery of Melignomon eisentrauti that Curry-Lindahl proposed for it the English name Coe's Honeyguide"

** Malcolm (James) Coe was born 20 November 1930 in Leyton, London. Son of Henry Herbert and Ada Selina Coe (born Powell) ... if he's still around is unknown to me? He could be, or not. If so he's closing in on his mid-90's ...