Gray-winged Robin-Chat

SCI Name:  Cossypha polioptera
Protonym:  Cossypha polioptera J.Orn. 40 p.59
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Muscicapidae / Cossypha
Taxonomy Code:  gywroc1
Type Locality:  Bukoba, Victoria Nyanza.
Author:  Reichenow
Publish Year:  1892
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

COSSYPHA
(Muscicapidae; Ϯ Chorister Robin Chat C. dichroa) Gr. κοσσυφος kossuphos  thrush; "III. FAM. MERULIDÆ.  ...  ****[Subfam.] Cossyphina.  Cossypha.†—Timalia.   ...   † I take this opportunity of characterizing one of the many forms that enter into the present subdivision of the family, for the purpose of pointing out the mode by which the Thrushes gradually pass into the Warblers.   COSSYPHA.  Rostrum mediocre, subgracile, culmine leviter arcuato; naribus basalibus, ovalibus, longitudinalibus. Alæ mediocres, rotundatæ: remige 1ma brevissima, 5ta longissima, 4ta 3tia et 2da paulatim brevioribus; 4tae 5tae et 6tae pogoniis externis leviter prope medium emarginatis.  Pedes subgracilis: tarsis scutellatis, paratarsiis integris. Cauda mediocris, rotundata.  Typus genericus. Turdus vociferans. Swains." (Vigors 1825); "Cossypha Vigors, 1825, Zool. Journ., 2, p. 396. Type, by original designation, Turdus vociferans Swainson = Muscicapa dichroa Gmelin." (Ripley in Peters, 1964, X, p. 50).
Var. Cassypha, Cossipha, Gossypha.
Synon. Caffrornis, Hyloaedon, Marisca.

polioptera / poliopterus
Gr. πολιος polios  grey; -πτερος -pteros  -winged  < πτερον pteron  wing (pace Clark & Davies 2018 (under Melierax), "The species name, poliopterus, is from the Greek polios for 'grey' and pleura for 'the side'").

POEOPTERA
(Sturnidae; Ϯ Narrow-tailed Starling P. lugubris) Gr. φαιος phaios  grey (cf. πολιος polios  grey); -πτερος -pteros  -winged  < πτερον pteron  wing; "Noticeably slender: ad ♂ is black (shows a violet sheen in good light), with creamy-yellow eyes, dull brown-grey wings, and a long narrow graduated tail. Ad ♀ is duller and greyer on the head with chestnut primaries." (Stevenson & Fanshawe 2002); "La soi-disant Muscicapa lugubris, du baron de Muller, est peut-être une des nouvelles Melænornis de Sundeval; toutefois, s'il a voulu illustrer une espèce abyssinienne que nous conservons dans le Musée de Paris, nous lui trouvons un aspect Saxicolien qui nous la fait rapprocher des genres Gervaisia, Bp., et Thamnolæa, Cab.: nous en constituons le genre Poeoptera, Bp., et nous appellerons l'espèce lugubris, qu'elle soit ou non la lugubris, Mull., Nouv. Ois. d'Afrique, I, t. 2.  Atro-cyanea: remigibus interne subtusque latissime cinereo-chalybæis." (Bonaparte 1854); "Poeoptera Bonaparte, 1854, Compt. Rend., 38, p. 381. Type, by monotypy, Poeoptera lugubris Bonaparte." (Amadon in Peters 1962, XV, 86).
Var. Paeoptera, Poeopterus, Polioptera.
Synon. Arizelopsar, Myiopsar, Stilbopsar.

SUBSPECIES

Gray-winged Robin-Chat (Black-capped)
SCI Name: Cossypha polioptera nigriceps/tessmanni
COSSYPHA
(Muscicapidae; Ϯ Chorister Robin Chat C. dichroa) Gr. κοσσυφος kossuphos  thrush; "III. FAM. MERULIDÆ.  ...  ****[Subfam.] Cossyphina.  Cossypha.†—Timalia.   ...   † I take this opportunity of characterizing one of the many forms that enter into the present subdivision of the family, for the purpose of pointing out the mode by which the Thrushes gradually pass into the Warblers.   COSSYPHA.  Rostrum mediocre, subgracile, culmine leviter arcuato; naribus basalibus, ovalibus, longitudinalibus. Alæ mediocres, rotundatæ: remige 1ma brevissima, 5ta longissima, 4ta 3tia et 2da paulatim brevioribus; 4tae 5tae et 6tae pogoniis externis leviter prope medium emarginatis.  Pedes subgracilis: tarsis scutellatis, paratarsiis integris. Cauda mediocris, rotundata.  Typus genericus. Turdus vociferans. Swains." (Vigors 1825); "Cossypha Vigors, 1825, Zool. Journ., 2, p. 396. Type, by original designation, Turdus vociferans Swainson = Muscicapa dichroa Gmelin." (Ripley in Peters, 1964, X, p. 50).
Var. Cassypha, Cossipha, Gossypha.
Synon. Caffrornis, Hyloaedon, Marisca.

Gray-winged Robin-Chat (Gray-winged)
SCI Name: Cossypha polioptera polioptera
polioptera / poliopterus
Gr. πολιος polios  grey; -πτερος -pteros  -winged  < πτερον pteron  wing (pace Clark & Davies 2018 (under Melierax), "The species name, poliopterus, is from the Greek polios for 'grey' and pleura for 'the side'").