Halcyon (1 Viewer)

[Peter Kovalik]

Jiangyong Qu, Boyang Shi, Chenghua Guo, Jianhai Hou, Jiansen Cong & Jingrong Zhen (2016): Complete mitochondrial genome and the phylogenetic position of Halcyon smyrnensis (Aves: Coraciiformes), Mitochondrial DNA Part B.

[PDF]

 

[Peter Kovalik]

Monica Mwale, Desiré L Dalton, Anna S Kropff, Kim Labuschagne, Isa-Rita Russo & Samuel T Osinubi (2022) Genetic and morphological variation of Woodland Kingfisher Halcyon senegalensis reveals cryptic mitochondrial lineages and patterns of mitochondrial–nuclear discordance, Ostrich, DOI: 10.2989/00306525.2022.2066215

Abstract:

The Woodland Kingfisher Halcyon senegalensis is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa and occupies a wide variety of woodland and savannah habitat. Thus far, three subspecies have been described based on morphological variation. In the present study, using western, eastern and southern African populations, we examined the relationship between morphological and genetic divergence among two named subspecies, H. s. cyanoleuca and H. s. senegalensis, using three mitochondrial markers (CO1, Cytb, 16S) and two nuclear markers (FIB5 and RAG1). Southern birds showed clear evidence for morphological divergence, with a longer wing and tail length, when compared with eastern and western birds. Phylogenetic analyses using Bayesian methods identified two well-characterised genetic clusters, representing the two subspecies. We determined that H. s. senegalensis and H. s. cyanoleuca are closely related subspecies that split recently, approximately 0.66–1.31 MYA in the Pleistocene. Furthermore, genetic substructure was evident within H. s. senegalensis, with three distinct genetic clusters in each region. The separation between the Ghana+Gabon and Uganda lineages of H. s. senegalensis occurred approximately 0.12–0.57 MYA. Nuclear–mitochondrial discordance was detected, however, wherein the pattern of divergence was not detected in the RAG1 and FIB5 sequences. Our results suggest that climate change, biogeographic barriers and local adaptation has played a role in the diversification of Woodland Kingfishers in Africa.

 

[paranoid numanoid]

How did the word "halcyon" and its variants (alcedo, alcyone etc) become attached to the kingfishers, when it seems from classical sources (Ovid) and from linguistics ('alc) to have been more of a seabird, a gull or an albatross/alcatraz?

Just wondering!

 

[Jacana]

It was a bird that was thought to nest in the winter and calm seas. Kingfishers often appear along the Mediterranean coast during winter and there's no reason to suggest that this wasn't the actual candidate.

But names often get jumbled around. Ficedula is a similar case. Literally means "little fig eater" and probably referred to Blackcaps or other Sylvia warblers.

Names getting reassigned is not a rare occurrence and has happened several times in vernacular names too. "Chough" probably referred to Jackdaws originally while some of the duck names got jumbled. IIRC, Gadwall referred to a different species at one point (I forget which). Happened in Swedish too. Velvet and Common Scoter (Svarta and Sjöorre) got probably switched at some point. Sjöorre literally means "sea black grouse" while "Svarta" sort of means "black/black one".

 

[Jim LeNomenclatoriste]

But names often get jumbled around. Ficedula is a similar case. Literally means "little fig eater" and probably referred to Blackcaps or other Sylvia warblers.

In French, Ficedula can be translated into "Becfigue" (or "Bec-figue", english Beak fig), and the original species of the Becfigue described by some French naturalist (e.g. Buffon, Brisson) is Ficedula hypoleuca 😋

 

[paranoid numanoid]

Yes I've looked into some of those, fascinating! Do people think the chough says "chuff" or "chow"? I've heard jackdaws say both...

 

[Jacana]

In French, Ficedula can be translated into "Becfigue" (or "Bec-figue", english Beak fig), and the original species of the Becfigue described by some French naturalist (e.g. Buffon, Brisson) is Ficedula hypoleuca 😋

Yes, but Ficedula was a word that was actually used in the Latin language, rather than a scientific neologism. It referred to any little birds that were caught in fig orchards and sold for food. There was even a specific name for these bird merchants- Ficedulenses.

 

[paranoid numanoid]

William Turner in 1544 translates Aristotle into Latin saying the Atracapilla (black-cap) changes into the Ficedula in autumn, "only differing in colour and voice".
The Sukalis (in Greek) he gives as the Ficedula (Latin)", a little bird like the grasmusch (warbler?) of the Germans, living upon figs and grapes".

 

[cajanuma]

Yes, but Ficedula was a word that was actually used in the Latin language, rather than a scientific neologism. It referred to any little birds that were caught in fig orchards and sold for food. There was even a specific name for these bird merchants- Ficedulenses.

In Italian, it's the Garden Warbler that's called Beccafico ("Fig pecker"). Indeed the best way to find migrants in late August/early September is to just find a fig tree!

 

[paranoid numanoid]

It was a bird that was thought to nest in the winter and calm seas. Kingfishers often appear along the Mediterranean coast during winter and there's no reason to suggest that this wasn't the actual candidate.

But names often get jumbled around. Ficedula is a similar case. Literally means "little fig eater" and probably referred to Blackcaps or other Sylvia warblers.

Names getting reassigned is not a rare occurrence and has happened several times in vernacular names too. "Chough" probably referred to Jackdaws originally while some of the duck names got jumbled. IIRC, Gadwall referred to a different species at one point (I forget which). Happened in Swedish too. Velvet and Common Scoter (Svarta and Sjöorre) got probably switched at some point. Sjöorre literally means "sea black grouse" while "Svarta" sort of means "black/black one".

I've given two good reasons at least, the linguistics (alc) and the original mythology.....

 

[Xenospiza]

William Turner in 1544 translates Aristotle into Latin saying the Atracapilla (black-cap) changes into the Ficedula in autumn, "only differing in colour and voice".
The Sukalis (in Greek) he gives as the Ficedula (Latin)", a little bird like the grasmusch (warbler?) of the Germans, living upon figs and grapes".

Grasmus is still the Dutch name for most Sylvia warblers (in German, it has changed to Grasmücke).

The halcyon apparently was notable for its horrible screeching (according to my very old Greek dictionary), so a gull seems more fitting (although you'd expect the Greeks to know they nested on islands and not on the sea). But great zoologists they were not.

 

[paranoid numanoid]

Cheers Xenospiza, interesting. These seem connected to lots of English provincial names I've been studying.
Are these names related to grey or grass?
And is the second part "mus" a small thing, or related specifically to "mouse", or to "smucke" - akin to our "smatch" (eg old wheatear names)?

 

[James Jobling]

The Key has:

ALCEDO (Alcedinidae; Ϯ Common Kingfisher A. atthis ispida) L. alcedo, alcedinis or halcedo, halcedinis kingfisher. The later spellings are from the false etymology of Gr. ἁλς hals sea; "56. ALCEDO. Rostrum trigonum, crassum, rectum, longum. Lingua carnosa, brevissima, plana, acuta." (Linnaeus 1758).

ALCYONE (Alcedinidae; syn. Alcedo † Azure Kingfisher A. azurea) Gr. myth Alcyone wife to Ceyx, both being metamorphosed into kingfishers; "Alcyone *, Sw. Bill as in Alcedo; but the feet with only three toes. Australia. A. Australis. Zool. Ill. i. pl. 26. ... * As this is the only group in ornithology wherein mythological names have been tolerated, I have ventured to continue the metaphorical connection in this instance." (Swainson 1837).

CEYX (Alcedinidae; Ϯ Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher C. erithaca) L. ceyx, ceycis seabird variously identified < Gr. κηυξ kēux, κηυκος kēukos seabird mentioned by Dionysius and Lucian, and considered identical to the halcyon, hence its use for a kingfisher. In Gr. myth. Ceyx, blasphemous husband to Alcyone, was drowned at sea and metamorphosed into a kingfisher along with his desolated wife when she found his body washed up on the shore.

HALCYON (Alcedinidae; Ϯ Woodland Kingfisher H. senegalensis) Gr. αλκυων alkuōn, αλκυονος alkuonos mythical bird, long associated with the kingfisher, which nested on the sea. It was beloved of the gods, who calmed the waves whilst it incubated and raised its young, and such periods of peace and calm became known as “halcyon days”.

 

[Xenospiza]

Cheers Xenospiza, interesting. These seem connected to lots of English provincial names I've been studying.
Are these names related to grey or grass?
And is the second part "mus" a small thing, or related specifically to "mouse", or to "smucke" - akin to our "smatch" (eg old wheatear names)?

Gras = grass
Mus = old loanword from Latin (musca, fly), for a small flying animal (that even explains German Grasmücke, which appears to mean "grass mosquito")

 

[Jacana]

I've given two good reasons at least, the linguistics (alc) and the original mythology.....

You've given two reasons, neither of which are good enough to say one way or the other. As I've pointed out, linguistics can change overtime and frequently diverge from taxonomic reality. Not to mention the false friends. The "alc" in Alcid/Alcatraz come from completely different routes as far as I'm aware. One Greek, the other Arabic or Greek-derived Arabic. Interestingly if it it's the latter then it means that Albatross derives from Alcatraz (now Spanish for Gannet), which derived from something to do with water jars, which likely describes Pelicans.

 

[James Jobling]

The Key:
ALBATRUS (Diomedeidae; syn. Diomedea † Wandering Albatross D. exulans) French Albatros albatross; Albatross and its European equivalents are the definitive spellings of a word that has undergone dramatic corruption since its birth in the Arabic name al qadus for the leathern bucket used in irrigation. This name early Spanish and Portuguese explorers adopted as “Alcatras” or “Alcaduz” and gave to the pelican Pelecanus, with reference to its capacious bill. The name was mistakenly identified and applied vaguely to other large water-birds, firstly by English navigators to the frigatebirds Fregata and finally, via Alcatraza, Alcatraze, Algatross, and Albitross, to the present species of this family (cf. “The name is thought to derive from the Portuguese word alcatraz, meaning pelican (itself a corruption of the Arabic al-gattas, meaning diver or plunger)” (Moore 2006)).

 

[paranoid numanoid]

You've given two reasons, neither of which are good enough to say one way or the other. As I've pointed out, linguistics can change overtime and frequently diverge from taxonomic reality. Not to mention the false friends. The "alc" in Alcid/Alcatraz come from completely different routes as far as I'm aware. One Greek, the other Arabic or Greek-derived Arabic. Interestingly if it it's the latter then it means that Albatross derives from Alcatraz (now Spanish for Gannet), which derived from something to do with water jars, which likely describes Pelicans.

Hey Jacana, yes, you're right about alc (alk, auk) and al (Arabic article) being two different paths (I think al qadus referred to the bucket bill of the pelican?) but neither suggests kingfisher.
Also on the mythological front nothing suggests kingfisher either. I've read Ovid's tale of Ceyx and Alcyone and they are obviously changed into seabirds with a plaintive voice who mate for life, nest on the sea and for whom Aeolus calms the winds at the winter solstice.
I have to take you up on linguistics changing over time and diverging from taxonomic "reality", on reflection wouldn't you say there are fairly stable laws which apply in linguistics and that as far as taxonomy is concerned - although what we're talking about here is really nomenclature or onomastics - there is constant change in the light of developments?
I know the halcyon has "long been associated with the kingfisher", to quote the eminent James Jobling, but my original question is how did this attribution - surely an error - first come about? (notwithstanding it has been compounded in every generation!)

Jacana, your earlier point about vernacular names changing (notwithstanding they have been shown to be more stable even than "scientific" names) is a good one, even "ganot" I think was in Old and Middle English used generally for "seabirds" and was not specific (I recall James Fisher writing about this in relation to the Seafarer poem). So perhaps we will never know.

 

[paranoid numanoid]

The Key has:

ALCEDO (Alcedinidae; Ϯ Common Kingfisher A. atthis ispida) L. alcedo, alcedinis or halcedo, halcedinis kingfisher. The later spellings are from the false etymology of Gr. ἁλς hals sea; "56. ALCEDO. Rostrum trigonum, crassum, rectum, longum. Lingua carnosa, brevissima, plana, acuta." (Linnaeus 1758).

ALCYONE (Alcedinidae; syn. Alcedo † Azure Kingfisher A. azurea) Gr. myth Alcyone wife to Ceyx, both being metamorphosed into kingfishers; "Alcyone *, Sw. Bill as in Alcedo; but the feet with only three toes. Australia. A. Australis. Zool. Ill. i. pl. 26. ... * As this is the only group in ornithology wherein mythological names have been tolerated, I have ventured to continue the metaphorical connection in this instance." (Swainson 1837).

CEYX (Alcedinidae; Ϯ Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher C. erithaca) L. ceyx, ceycis seabird variously identified < Gr. κηυξ kēux, κηυκος kēukos seabird mentioned by Dionysius and Lucian, and considered identical to the halcyon, hence its use for a kingfisher. In Gr. myth. Ceyx, blasphemous husband to Alcyone, was drowned at sea and metamorphosed into a kingfisher along with his desolated wife when she found his body washed up on the shore.

HALCYON (Alcedinidae; Ϯ Woodland Kingfisher H. senegalensis) Gr. αλκυων alkuōn, αλκυονος alkuonos mythical bird, long associated with the kingfisher, which nested on the sea. It was beloved of the gods, who calmed the waves whilst it incubated and raised its young, and such periods of peace and calm became known as “halcyon days”.

Thank you for this James.
I'm seeking to go back beyond Linnaeus into the meaning of the words and of the mythology; as Gilbert White complained, Linnaeus "was no ornithologist". As far as I can see, Alcyone is not identified as a kingfisher in the mythology, and neither is Ceyx her drowned beloved.
Alcedo appears to have been derived from the same alc- root and therefore has no kingfisher association either as far as I can see (least said of "Dacelo" - an anagram - the better).
Surely Wm Swainson (above) doesn't mean only this family has mythological names? They run throughout "scientific" names like a rich seam, Pandion, Cypselus (formerly swifts), Procne, Philomel etc spring to mind.
OK I'm going back into Turner (1544) to see what he thought of Aristotle and Pliny on this subject! I think the mess might have started with those two.

 

[paranoid numanoid]

The Key:
ALBATRUS (Diomedeidae; syn. Diomedea † Wandering Albatross D. exulans) French Albatros albatross; Albatross and its European equivalents are the definitive spellings of a word that has undergone dramatic corruption since its birth in the Arabic name al qadus for the leathern bucket used in irrigation. This name early Spanish and Portuguese explorers adopted as “Alcatras” or “Alcaduz” and gave to the pelican Pelecanus, with reference to its capacious bill. The name was mistakenly identified and applied vaguely to other large water-birds, firstly by English navigators to the frigatebirds Fregata and finally, via Alcatraza, Alcatraze, Algatross, and Albitross, to the present species of this family (cf. “The name is thought to derive from the Portuguese word alcatraz, meaning pelican (itself a corruption of the Arabic al-gattas, meaning diver or plunger)” (Moore 2006)).

Thank you James - there is also some confusion in older literature (OE/ME) as to when is a "pelecan/pelican" not a Pelican! The word may have referred to different bird species at different times. Which kind of bears out Jacana's earlier point!
Also to say these current names are "definitive" spellings - on whose authority would that be? In fifty years time will they still be held to be so? And "corruption"? Languages and dialects evolve and the changes through time are not necessarily corrupt, which has a pejorative undertone. To be consistent, you would have to say the definitive modern spellings are also corruptions of every stage that went before.
Is modern English a corruption of its Germanic ancestors? Are romance languages corruptions of Latin? Let's cast around for more nuanced, less polarised language.

 

[paranoid numanoid]

Gras = grass
Mus = old loanword from Latin (musca, fly), for a small flying animal (that even explains German Grasmücke, which appears to mean "grass mosquito")

So tit (a small thing) + mus (a small (flying) thing) - like a fly!) which became "titmouse" in English becomes a tautology and nothing to do with "mouse" or "mice".
So what is the plural of "mus" in Dutch and in German (forgive my lack of fluency in these languages!!). It's a longstanding question which has never been answered properly as far as I know - and will help us to work out - what's the plural of tit-mus? certainly not titmice, or titmouses lol!