Brown-headed Apalis

SCI Name:  Apalis alticola
Protonym:  Cisticola alticola Bull.Br.Orn.Club 8 p.35
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Cisticolidae / Apalis
Taxonomy Code:  brhapa1
Type Locality:  'Nyasaland'' = Fife, fide Shelley, 1899 (July), Ibis, pp. 365, 373 = Isoka, Zambia.
Author:  Shelley
Publish Year:  1899
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

APALIS
(Cisticolidae; Ϯ Bar-throated Apalis A. thoracica) Gr. ἁπαλος hapalos  soft, delicate (cf. Gotch 1981, erroneously suggested Apalis might be from an African name); "[plate 119] APALIS thoracica   ...   [text] APALIS thoracia [sic].  Gorget Warbler.   Family Sylviadæ.  Sub-fam: Sylvianæ.   Genus (?) Apalis.   GENERIC (?) CHARACTER.  General structue [sic] of Prinea, but the bill shorter, the plumage more compact, and the outer toe not connected to the middle as far as the first joint.   ...   Le Plastron Noir. Le Vaill. Ois. d'Af. 3 pl. 123. f. 1 male. 2 fem.  Motacilla thoracia [sic]. Nat. Miss [sic].  22. pl. 969.   THIS is one of the pretty warblers of Southern Africa, discovered by Le Vaillant: it is very common and widely distributed in the interior, but rare near the Cape.   ...   That this bird is of a tenuirostral type, is almost certain; seeing that it is an obvious representation of Motacilla, Pachycephala, Tamatia, Trichas, Charadrius, and many other collared groups: but whether it forms part of the genus Prinea, or represents the tenuirostral genus between that and Culicivora, is very uncertain. We suspect that this latter station is filled by the Taylor-Warblers of India, not one of which is to be found in our public Museums." (Swainson 1832); "Apalis Swainson, 1832, Zool. Illus., ser. 2, 3, p. 119, pl. 119. Type, by monotypy, Motacilla thoracica Shaw and Nodder." (Traylor in Peters, 1986, XI, p. 154). 
Var. Hapalis. 
Synon. Chlorodyta, Drymoterpe, Euprinodes.

alticola
L. altus  high (i.e. highland, mountain)  < alere  to nourish; -cola  dweller  < colere  to inhabit.
● Erroneous TL. Fife, N.E. Rhodesia, near Nyasaland border (= Isoka, Northern Rhodesia / Zambia); "Cisticola alticola  ...  Not a Cisticola (cf. steeply graduated tail of long narrow feathers; broad-based, fine-pointed first primary; lores coloured with head-top, &c.), but nearer Apalis and allies." (Lynes 1930) (Apalis).

SUBSPECIES

Brown-headed Apalis (alticola)
SCI Name: Apalis alticola alticola
alticola
L. altus  high (i.e. highland, mountain)  < alere  to nourish; -cola  dweller  < colere  to inhabit.
● Erroneous TL. Fife, N.E. Rhodesia, near Nyasaland border (= Isoka, Northern Rhodesia / Zambia); "Cisticola alticola  ...  Not a Cisticola (cf. steeply graduated tail of long narrow feathers; broad-based, fine-pointed first primary; lores coloured with head-top, &c.), but nearer Apalis and allies." (Lynes 1930) (Apalis).

Brown-headed Apalis (dowsetti)
SCI Name: Apalis alticola dowsetti
dowsetti
Robert Jack Dowsett (b. 1942) English zoologist, ornithologist (subsp. Apalis alticola, Buccanodon).