Rüppell's Robin-Chat

SCI Name:  Cossypha semirufa
Protonym:  Petrocincla semirufa NeueWirbelth.Vog. p.81
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Muscicapidae / Cossypha
Taxonomy Code:  rurcha1
Type Locality:  Abyssinia.
Author:  Rüppell
Publish Year:  1840
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.

semirufa / semirufus
L. semi-  half-  < semis, semissis  half  < as, assis  whole; rufus  rufous.

SUBSPECIES

Rüppell's Robin-Chat (semirufa)
SCI Name: Cossypha semirufa semirufa
semirufa / semirufus
L. semi-  half-  < semis, semissis  half  < as, assis  whole; rufus  rufous.

Rüppell's Robin-Chat (donaldsoni)
SCI Name: Cossypha semirufa donaldsoni
donaldsoni
Dr Arthur Donaldson Smith (1864-1939) US big-game hunter, naturalist, collector in Abyssinia and Somaliland 1894-1895 (Caprimulgus, syn. Cosmopsarus regius, subsp. Cossypha semirufa, Crithagra, syn. Merops superciliosus, Plocepasser, subsp. Tauraco leucotis).

Rüppell's Robin-Chat (intercedens)
SCI Name: Cossypha semirufa intercedens
intercedens
L. intercedens, intercedentis  interposed, coming between  < intercedere  to come between.
● Not only does the Growling Riflebird occupy eastern New Guinea, between the ranges of the two subspp. of the Magnificent Riflebird L. magnifica, but the female resembles the female of the nominate subsp. and the male resembles the male of the other (Lophorina).