Croaking Cisticola

SCI Name:  Cisticola natalensis
Protonym:  Drymoica natalensis Ill.Zool.S.Afr. pl.80,text
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Cisticolidae / Cisticola
Taxonomy Code:  crocis1
Type Locality:  'neighbourhood of Port Natal'' = Durban, Natal.
Author:  Smith, A
Publish Year:  1843
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

CISTICOLA
(Cisticolidae; † Zitting Cisticola C. juncidis cisticola) Gr. κιστις kistis  little basket  < dim. κιστη kistē  basket; L. -cola  dweller  < colere  to dwell (cf. specific name Sylvia cisticola Temminck, 1820 (= subsp. Cisticola juncidis)); the Zitting Cisticola, formerly known as Fan-tailed Warbler, is the only European member of this wide-ranging Old World, predominantly Afrotropical, genus of small monomorphic warblers; “2. Sylvia cisticola.   ...   2. Zistensänger. Cisticola.   E[ntwickelung]. Wie gewöhnlich.  Ch[arakter]. Kleine Oleandersänger mit hellrostfarbigem, schwarz geflecktem Rücken.  L[ebensart]. Sie leben wie die übrigen Rohrsänger, bauen aber ein trichterförmiges Nest ins hohe Gras.” (Kaup 1829); "Cisticola Kaup, 1829, Skizzirte Entwickelungs-Geschichte Europäisch. Thierwelt, p. 119.  Type, by tautonymy, Sylvia cisticola Temminck." (Traylor in Peters, 1986, XI, p. 84).
Var. Cisiticola.
Synon. Calamanthella, Cistodyta, Drymodyta, Drymodytops, Dryodromas, Hemipteryx, Merion, Neocisticola, Nephelicola, Pseudhemipteryx, Rhathymodyta, Tachydyta, Threnetes, Threnodyta, Threnodytops, Threnolais.

cisticola
Gr. κιστις kistis  little basket  < dim. κιστη kistē  basket; L. -cola dweller < colere to dwell.

natalensis
Natal or Port Natal / Durban, South Africa (named Terra Natalis Land of the Holy Birth, by Vasco da Gama when his expedition sailed along the coast in December 1497).

SUBSPECIES

Croaking Cisticola (strangei)
SCI Name: Cisticola natalensis strangei
strangei / strangii
Adm. James N. Strange (1812-1895) Royal Navy, on the Niger River Expedition 1840-1841 (subsp. Cisticola natalensis, syn. Cisticola natalensis inexpectatus, syn. Cisticola natalensis katanga).

Croaking Cisticola (tonga)
SCI Name: Cisticola natalensis tonga
tonga
Tonga, southern Sudan.

Croaking Cisticola (inexpectatus)
SCI Name: Cisticola natalensis inexpectatus
inexpecta / inexpectata / inexpectatum / inexpectatus / inexpectus / inexspectata / inexspectatus
L. inexspectatus  unexpected, surprising, unlooked for  < in-  not; exspectatus  awaited, expected  < exspectare  to await.
● “In view of the stability shown by Arremonops conirostris conirostris through a wide area, the appearance of this form so near the type-locality of that race is surprising and inexplicable” (Chapman 1914) (subsp. Arremonops conirostris).
● “It certainly was unexpected to find such a striking and hitherto unknown species on Guadalcanar, and this and the discovery of other new forms on the island shows that the ornithological exploration of Guadalcanar has hitherto been very imperfect” (Hartert 1929) (Guadalcanaria).
● “et necata inexpectatum nobis gaudium dedit novae speciei, ante nunquam visae” (Forster 1844) (Pterodroma).
● "Named both for the unexpected nature of its distribution, being restricted to two provinces of Ghana, and the fact that there are no obvious geographic barriers that separate it from two other members of the genus" (Voelker et al. 2016) (subsp. Stiphrornis erythrothorax).
● “On examining a large series of birdskins collected in the northern parts of Celebes and presented to the Leyden Museum by S. C. I. W. van Musschenbroek, Esq., I was quite astonished to find, that there exists in the Minahassa, beside Strix [= Tyto ] Rosenbergii, another large species of Barn-owl, very different as well from Strix Rosenbergii as from all the other known species” (Schlegel 1879) (Tyto).

Croaking Cisticola (argenteus)
SCI Name: Cisticola natalensis argenteus
argentea / argenteus
L. argenteus  of silver, silvery  < argentum, argenti  silver.

Croaking Cisticola (natalensis)
SCI Name: Cisticola natalensis natalensis
natalensis
Natal or Port Natal / Durban, South Africa (named Terra Natalis Land of the Holy Birth, by Vasco da Gama when his expedition sailed along the coast in December 1497).

Croaking Cisticola (holubii)
SCI Name: Cisticola natalensis holubii
holubii
Dr Emil Holub (1847-1902) Czech explorer in South Central Africa 1872-1879, 1883-1887, cartographer (subsp. Cisticola natalensis).

Croaking Cisticola (katanga)
SCI Name: Cisticola natalensis katanga
katanga / katangae / katangensis
Katanga, Belgian Congo / DR Congo.