Cassin's Flycatcher

SCI Name:  Muscicapa cassini
Protonym:  Muscicapa cassini J.Orn. 7(1859) no.42 p.428
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Muscicapidae / Muscicapa
Taxonomy Code:  casfly1
Type Locality:  Camma River, Western Africa = Sette Cama, Gabon.
Author:  Heine
Publish Year:  1860
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

MUSCICAPA
(Muscicapidae; Ϯ Spotted Flycatcher M. striata) L. musca  fly  < Gr. μυια muia, μυιας muias  fly; capere  to catch; "Genus Muscicapæ ...  Le genre du Gobe-mouche  ...  MUSCICAPA" (Brisson 1760); based on "Curruca" or "Ficedula" of Gessner 1555, "Grisola" of Aldrovandus 1599-1603, Willughby 1676, and Ray 1713, "Stoparola" of Willughby 1676, "Curruca subfusca" of Frisch 1733-1743, and "Sylvia pestilentialis" of Klein 1750; "Muscicapa Brisson, 1760, Ornith., 1, p. 32; 2, p. 357, pl. 5, fig. 3. Type, by tautonymy, Muscicapa = Motacilla striata Pallas." (Watson in Peters, 1986, XI, 313). The Spotted Flycatcher is the archetypal flycatcher, perching stolidly, then darting out to seize passing insects before returning to its perch.
Var. Muscicopa, Musicapa, Mussicapa, Muscapa.
Synon. Alseonax, Arizelomyia, Butalis, Hemichelidon, Myiotheras, Stoparola.

muscicapa
L. musca  fly  < Gr. μυια muia, μυιας muias  fly; capere  to catch.

cassini
John Cassin (1813-1869) US ornithologist, lithographer, co-owner of Bowen & Co. (Lithographers), Philadelphia (syn. Aethia pygmaea, subsp. Falco peregrinus, Horizocerus, Malimbus, subsp. Megascops guatemalae, syn. Molothrus bonariensis cabanisii, Muscicapa, Neafrapus, subsp. Poliocrania exsul, Psarocolius, syn. Todiramphus chloris vitiensis, Veniliornis) (see cassinii).