Collin and Hartert (Nov. Zool., 34, 1927, p. 51) have pointed out
that on account of preoccupation of Falco buteo japonicus Temminck
and Schlegel, Buteo burmanicus, the next earliest name, must
come into use. They refer this name to Oates. Mr. Peters, how-
ever, tells me that there is no evidence that Oates wrote the article
(Stray Feathers, 3, 1875, p. 30) in which the name appears, and that
undoubtedly it was written by Hume himself, who just now and
then includes notes of Feilden and Oates.
Oates in 1883 wrote the Birds of Burmah and in it, he says:
“I have not ventured to investigate the difficult group of the Buzzards and I therefore gladly avail myself of Mr. Sharpe’s description of Mr. Hodgson’s type of B. plumipes, the species with which Mr. Hume identifies Buzzards procured in Burmah.
http://books.google.com/books?id=hH...X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA185,M1 . A Harrier Buzzard was procured at Thayetmyo by Capt. Feilden.
In vol. XXVII of the Journal fur ornithology they list Hume and Oates as authors of "A first list of the birds of Upper Pegu, with a Map of a portion of Upper Pegu and a coloured plate of Anthocincla Phayrei--".
To quote Stray Feathers: (Mr. Hume was preparing a paper based upon a collection of birds shot by Capt. Feilden then he found out Oates was also) “I therefore proposed to Mr. Oates …we should prepare a joint paper on the birds of Upper Pegu.” On page 30, Hume states that “It is certainly not ferox in an stage, neither is it, I think desertorum; and if not japonicus, (it is far too small for vulgaris) it must be a new species, and if so, might well stand as burmanicus. I myself am inclined to believe that it is japonicus.”
This is how it is listed:
45 bis.—Buteo japanicus, Schlegel.
Hume, does then include a note on the killing of the specimen by Capt. Feilden and says that Oates never appears to have met the species. Earlier on page 2 Hume states that he had never been in upper Burma before.
Looking at the code and Art. 50 & 51, including recommendation 50 A and 51E: The article is joint by Hume and Oates, but the naming is done (half heartedly) by Hume. So burmanicus’s author should be cited Hume in Hume & Oates, 1875 Stray Feather 3 (1-3) p.1-194.
In 1881 Oates published in Calcutta a pamphlet entitled “List of the Birds of Pegu” which is not the same title as the Stray Feather article. (A first list of the birds of Upper Pegu)
Jerdon in 1877 says that Hodgson’s plumipes is “not unlikely the adult female of Blyth’s pygmaeus J.A. S. XIV from Tenasserim” (Tenasserim is lower Burma) Blyth, 1845.— Mus.
Buteo pygmaeus, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xiv. p. 177 ; xv.
p. 3 ; xix. p. 339.
Habitat. — S. Asia. Tenasserim.
Blyth, E., 1845b. Notices and descriptions of various new or little known species of birds.— J. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, XIV (159): 173-212. The date on the article is July 12, 1845 but Dickerson says September 1845. Does not this have priority over burmanicus? The type was certainly from Burma. Hodgson's plumipes was from earlier in 1845 than pygmaeus but it was from Thibet so Blyth did not intentionally publish pygmaeus as a synonym, I think. Art. 11.6?