Long-tailed Sibia

SCI Name:  Heterophasia picaoides
Protonym:  [Sibia] Pieaoides J.Asiat.Soc.Bengal 8 p.38
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Leiothrichidae / Heterophasia
Taxonomy Code:  lotsib1
Type Locality:  Nepal.
Author:  Hodgson
Publish Year:  1839
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

HETEROPHASIA
(Leiothrichidae; Ϯ Long-tailed Sibia H. picaoides) Gr. ἑτερος heteros  different; φασις phasis  appearance  < φαινω phainō  to appear; “Heterophasia, Nobis, n. g?   A curious meruline form, exhibiting affinity for various distinct genera, but which cannot be immediately approximated to any with which I am acquainted. It has long rounded wings, a very long and much graduated tail, slender and slightly curving bill, and rather short tarsi.  Bill longer than the head, slender, tapering, a little incurved, its base as high as broad, and gradually more compressed for the basal ¾ths; the ridge of the upper mandible distinct (but not sharp) to beyond the nostrils, then rather less so, and its tip very slightly if at all emarginated: nostrils somewhat large, and almost closed by impending membrane, the naral orificies appearing as mere fissures on the inferior margin of this, though more apart anteriorly: a few small setæ at the gape. Tarse somewhat longer than the middle toe; and the claws compressed and suitable for perching.  Wings having the 5th or 6th primary longest, and the 7th equal to the 4th.  Tail broad and very much lengthened and graduated.  The plumage throughout is soft, dense, and smooth; the wings and tail tolerably firm.    34. H. cuculopsis, Nobis.   ...   At a first glance, this bird is apt to be mistaken for Cuculidous; an appearance to which its large and lengthened graduated tail, each feather tipped with whitish, its incurved bill, and the general hue of its colouring, alike contribute.  From Darjeeling.” (Blyth 1842); "Heterophasia Blyth, 1842, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 11, p. 186. Type, by monotypy, Heterophasia cuculopsis Blyth = Sibia picaoides Hodgson." (Deignan in Peters, 1964, X, p. 416).
Var. Heterophosia.
Synon. Malacias.

picaoides
Genus Pica Brisson 1760, magpie; Gr. -οιδης -oidēs  resembling (i.e. long-tailed); "Genus—SIBIA   ...   Species 1st. Pieaoides [sic].  Pie-like Sibia mihi.  Saturate slatey-blue; paler and greyer below; darker and merging into black on the wings and tail; speculum on the secondaries, and tips of the rectrices, white; legs plumbeous; bill black; iris sanguine; tail very long, and gradated conspicuously and equally throughout; head not crested" (Hodgson 1839) (Heterophasia).

SUBSPECIES

Long-tailed Sibia (picaoides)
SCI Name: Heterophasia picaoides picaoides
picaoides
Genus Pica Brisson 1760, magpie; Gr. -οιδης -oidēs  resembling (i.e. long-tailed); "Genus—SIBIA   ...   Species 1st. Pieaoides [sic].  Pie-like Sibia mihi.  Saturate slatey-blue; paler and greyer below; darker and merging into black on the wings and tail; speculum on the secondaries, and tips of the rectrices, white; legs plumbeous; bill black; iris sanguine; tail very long, and gradated conspicuously and equally throughout; head not crested" (Hodgson 1839) (Heterophasia).

Long-tailed Sibia (cana)
SCI Name: Heterophasia picaoides cana
cana
L. canus grey, hoary.
● ex “Echenilleur Gris” of Levaillant 1805, pll. 162, 163 (syn. Coracina caesia).
● ex “Muscicapa madagascariensis cinerea major” of Brisson 1760, “Grand Gobe-mouche cendré de Madagascar” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 541, “Kinki-manou de Madagascar” of de Buffon 1770-1783, and “Ash-coloured Fly-catcher” of Latham 1783 (syn. Coracina cinerea).
● ex “Ash-coloured Heron” of Pennant 1787 (syn. Nycticorax nycticorax).
● ex “Figuier cendré à gorge cendrée” of de Buffon 1770-1783, and “Grey-throated Warbler” of Latham 1783 and Pennant 1785 (syn. Polioptila caerulea).
● ex “Héoro-taire gris” of Audebert & Vieillot 1802 (?syn. Ptilotula fusca).
● ex “Grey-headed Duck” of Brown 1776, “Oie sauvage à tête grise de la côte de Coromandel” of Sonnerat 1782, and “Grey-headed Goose” of Latham 1785 (Tadorna).
● "96. LOXIA.  ...  cana.  27. L. cana, remigibus rectricibusque fuscis, pedibus rubris.  Linaria cinerea orientalis. Edw. av. 179. t. 179. f. 1.  Habitat in Asia.  Margines rectricum & oris regio albida." (Linnaeus 1758) (unident.).

Long-tailed Sibia (wrayi)
SCI Name: Heterophasia picaoides wrayi
wrayi
Leonard Wray, Jr. (1852-1942) British civil servant in Malaya, Director of Museums Federated Malay States 1905-1908 (subsp. Aethopyga saturata, subsp. Brachypteryx leucophris, subsp. Chrysophlegma flavinucha, subsp. Erythrogenys hypoleucos, subsp. Heterophasia picaoides, syn. Pericrocotus solaris montanus).

Long-tailed Sibia (simillima)
SCI Name: Heterophasia picaoides simillima
simillima / simillimum / simillimus
L. simillimus  very similar  < super. similis  similar.
● "Arachnothera simillima, Sp. Nov.  Extremely like A. flavigaster, Eyton, but smaller, somewhat yellower above and below, with a much smaller bill and distinguished at once by the rami of the lower mandible not meeting to form the angle of the gonys till within 0·6 of the point.  ...  This bird may not be new, but I am unable to identify it; and I think it probable that owing to its extreme similarity to the common flavigaster it may hitherto have escaped observation." (Hume 1877) (syn. Arachnothera flavigaster).
● "75. Dicaeum geelvinkianum simillimum subsp. nov.  Extremely similar to D. g. diversum R. & H. (NOV. ZOOL. 1903, p. 215), but differs by the deeper red colour of the crown, breast patch and rump.  ...  It is perhaps risky to describe a form which differs so little, but this form is interesting as standing in between rubrocoronatum and diversum, in having the deep red of the former and the more steel-blue (not purplish) edges of the latter, and its geographical position is equally intermediate." (Hartert 1930) (syn. Dicaeum geelvinkianum).
● "Sp. 134.  Heterophasia simillima, nov. sp.  ...  Simillima H. PICOIDI (Hodgs.) nepalensi, sed paullo minor, subtus pallidior, abdomine et subcaudalibus sordide albidis, et speculo alari albo minore, diversa." (Salvadori 1879) (subsp. Heterophasia picaoides).
● "Rallus torquatus simillimus, subsp. nov.  Description.—Male and female.  Very similar to Rallus torquatus sulcirostris Wallace from Sula Mangoli and Taliaboe, but larger and slightly more rufous and a little darker on the upper parts.  ...  The difference in colour is very slight, and some specimens are scarcely different in this respect.  I would not have given the Peling population a new name were it not an island race." (Neumann 1939) (syn. Hypotaenidia torquata).
● "30b. *Diaphoropterus naevius simillimus nov. Subsp.   Verbreitung: Alle drei Loyalty-Inseln.  ...  ausser dem etwa kürzeren Schwanz mit der caledonischen Form übereinstimmend.  Beim Weibchen, besonders bei dem von Maré, sind die weissen Säume der Primär- und namentlich der Sekundärschwingen wesentlich schmäler als beim caledonischen Vogel, ähnlich die hell rötlichbraunen des Weibchens von Lifou." (F. Sarasin 1913) (subsp. Lalage leucopygus).
● "454. Motacilla flava simillima subsp. nov.  Budytes leucostriatus (non Homeyer!) amerikanischer Ornithologen.   In Kamtschatka brütet eine Schafstelze, die der mitteleuropäischen M. f. flava so ähnlich ist, daß sie schwer zu unterscheiden ist und bisher von europäischen Ornithologen nicht davon unterschieden wurde" (Hartert 1905) (subsp. Motacilla tschutschensis).
● "There also we find a beautiful and apparently very common Pitta, closely assimilating in colour, but in colour alone, to the P. strepitans  ...  Having lately had a great number of specimens forwarded to me which all agree in being of a smaller size and in having the under surface of a deeper buff, I propose, notwithstanding the opinion given in my 'Handbook,' to characterize it as distinct, and at the same time to assign to it a name (simillima) which shall mark its affinity to the older known species.  ...  PITTA SIMILLIMA, Gould." (Gould 1868) (subsp. Pitta versicolor).
● "83.—T. simillimus.—New species.—Neilgherry black bird.   This black bird, generally considered by residents on the Neilgherries to be identical with the European species, so closely resembles it, that I was unable to decide accurately from the descriptions I possess, til I procured some specimens from home of the British bird.  It however differs invariably (besides in other points hereafter to be mentioned) in the colour of its legs, which are always yellow, whilst those of the T. merula are brown" (Jerdon 1839) (Turdus).