Bocage's Akalat

SCI Name:  Sheppardia bocagei
Protonym:  Cossypha bocagei Vog.Ost.-Afr.[Finsch & Hartlaub] p.284
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Muscicapidae / Sheppardia
Taxonomy Code:  bocaka1
Type Locality:  Mossamedes Province [= Biballa, vide Barboza du Bocage, 1881, Orn. Angola, p. 259].
Author:  Finsch & Hartlaub
Publish Year:  1870
IUCN Status:  

DEFINITIONS

SHEPPARDIA
(Muscicapidae; † East Coast Akalat S. gunningi) Percy Alexander Sheppard (1875-1958) British farmer, oologist, entomologist, collector, settler in Mozambique 1898-1916, and Rhodesia / Zimbabwe 1916-1958; "I have named the first species [Batis sheppardi] after its discoverer, and for the second a new genus seems necessary to which I have also attached the name of its collector   ...   SHEPPARDIA, gen. nov.  Resembling Bradornis in the narrower bill (6.25 mm. broad at the base), tail shorter than the wing and nearly square (only the outer feather on either side hardly a mm. shorter than the others); differing from that genus in that the fourth to sixth primaries are the longest, the second longer than the eighth; rictal bristles well developed, reaching to within 5 mm. of the tip of the bill.   SHEPPARDIA GUNNINGI, sp. nov.   ...   This bird, which in general coloration resembles the Callene cyornithopsis of Sharpe (Bull. B. O. C. XII, 1901 and Ibis, 1902, p. 95, plate 4), and which I at first took for C. sharpei or C. aequatorialis, differs from these birds in its almost square tail, and in not agreeing with Reichenow's diagnosis of the generic character: "Schnabel seitlich zusammen gedrueckt," whereas this bird has a flatter bill, resembling that of Bradornis, but a little more slender." (Haagner 1909); "Sheppardia Haagner, 1909, Ann. Transvaal Mus., 1, p. 180.  Type, by monotypy, Sheppardia gunningi Haagner." (Ripley in Peters, 1964, X, p. 33).
Synon. Gabelatrix, Prosheppardia, Vibrissosylvia.

bocagei
Prof. José Vicente Barboza du Bocage (1823-1907) Portuguese ornithologist, father of Angolan ornithology (Bostrychia, Chlorophoneus, syn. Cinnyricinclus leucogaster verreauxi, Coccopygia, syn. Cyanoderma chrysaeum frigidum, subsp. Euplectes axillaris, subsp. Illadopsis rufipennis, subsp. Lybius torquatus, Sheppardia, subsp. Tchagra australis, syn. Tockus deckeni, subsp. Turdus pelios).

SUBSPECIES

Bocage's Akalat (Grant's)
SCI Name: Sheppardia bocagei granti
granti
● William Robert Ogilvie-Grant (1863-1924) English ornithologist at BMNH 1882-1918 (subsp. Acanthisitta chloris, subsp. Accipiter nisus, subsp. Aerodramus vanikorensis, syn. Alopecoenas beccarii solomonensis, subsp. Camaroptera chloronota, Horizocerus, syn. Lophura nycthemera, syn. Melaenornis pallida parvus, subsp. Microptilotis mimikae, subsp. Napothera epilepidota, syn. Neocossyphus poensis praepectoralis, Ninox, syn. Oriolus szalayi, syn. Pellorneum ruficeps olivaceum, Penelope, subsp. Ptiloprora plumbea, Ptilopsis, subsp. Rhipidura rufifrons (ex Rhipidura harterti Ogilvie-Grant), subsp. Sericornis spilodera, subsp. Sturnus vulgaris, Sula).
● Capt. Claude Henry Baxter Grant (1878-1958) British ornithologist at BMNH 1898-1903, 1932-1958, in East Africa 1916-1932 (subsp. Bradypterus lopezi, subsp. Crithagra mozambica, subsp. Cyanomitra olivacea, syn. Malimbus malimbicus, subsp. Phoeniculus damarensis, syn. Pyrenestes ostrinus minor, subsp. Sheppardia poensis, subsp. Smutsornis africanus, subsp. Terpsiphone viridis, subsp. Treron delalandii).
● Lt.-Col. James Augustus Grant (1827-1892) British Army, explorer with Speke in East Africa 1860-1863 (syn. Guttera pucherani).
● Robert Grant (1854-1923) Scottish miner and immigrant to Australia 1879, taxidermist at Australian Mus. 1887-1917, collector, explorer (subsp. Paradisaea raggiana).

Bocage's Akalat (Bioko)
SCI Name: Sheppardia bocagei poensis
poense / poensis
Fernando Póo or Fernando Pó, Gulf of Guinea / Bioko, Equatorial Guinea (island sighted by Portuguese navigator Fernaõ do Póo in 1470).

Bocage's Akalat (Bocage's)
SCI Name: Sheppardia bocagei [bocagei Group]
SHEPPARDIA
(Muscicapidae; † East Coast Akalat S. gunningi) Percy Alexander Sheppard (1875-1958) British farmer, oologist, entomologist, collector, settler in Mozambique 1898-1916, and Rhodesia / Zimbabwe 1916-1958; "I have named the first species [Batis sheppardi] after its discoverer, and for the second a new genus seems necessary to which I have also attached the name of its collector   ...   SHEPPARDIA, gen. nov.  Resembling Bradornis in the narrower bill (6.25 mm. broad at the base), tail shorter than the wing and nearly square (only the outer feather on either side hardly a mm. shorter than the others); differing from that genus in that the fourth to sixth primaries are the longest, the second longer than the eighth; rictal bristles well developed, reaching to within 5 mm. of the tip of the bill.   SHEPPARDIA GUNNINGI, sp. nov.   ...   This bird, which in general coloration resembles the Callene cyornithopsis of Sharpe (Bull. B. O. C. XII, 1901 and Ibis, 1902, p. 95, plate 4), and which I at first took for C. sharpei or C. aequatorialis, differs from these birds in its almost square tail, and in not agreeing with Reichenow's diagnosis of the generic character: "Schnabel seitlich zusammen gedrueckt," whereas this bird has a flatter bill, resembling that of Bradornis, but a little more slender." (Haagner 1909); "Sheppardia Haagner, 1909, Ann. Transvaal Mus., 1, p. 180.  Type, by monotypy, Sheppardia gunningi Haagner." (Ripley in Peters, 1964, X, p. 33).
Synon. Gabelatrix, Prosheppardia, Vibrissosylvia.