East Coast Akalat

SCI Name:  Sheppardia gunningi
Protonym:  Sheppardia gunningi Ann.TransvaalMus. 1 p.180
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Muscicapidae / Sheppardia
Taxonomy Code:  eacaka1
Type Locality:  Mzimbiti, near Beira.
Author:  Haagner
Publish Year:  1909
IUCN Status:  Near Threatened

DEFINITIONS

SHEPPARDIA
(Muscicapidae; † East Coast Akalat S. gunningi) Percy Alexander Sheppard (1875-1958) British farmer, oologist, entomologist, collector, settler in Mozambique 1898-1916, and Rhodesia / Zimbabwe 1916-1958; "I have named the first species [Batis sheppardi] after its discoverer, and for the second a new genus seems necessary to which I have also attached the name of its collector   ...   SHEPPARDIA, gen. nov.  Resembling Bradornis in the narrower bill (6.25 mm. broad at the base), tail shorter than the wing and nearly square (only the outer feather on either side hardly a mm. shorter than the others); differing from that genus in that the fourth to sixth primaries are the longest, the second longer than the eighth; rictal bristles well developed, reaching to within 5 mm. of the tip of the bill.   SHEPPARDIA GUNNINGI, sp. nov.   ...   This bird, which in general coloration resembles the Callene cyornithopsis of Sharpe (Bull. B. O. C. XII, 1901 and Ibis, 1902, p. 95, plate 4), and which I at first took for C. sharpei or C. aequatorialis, differs from these birds in its almost square tail, and in not agreeing with Reichenow's diagnosis of the generic character: "Schnabel seitlich zusammen gedrueckt," whereas this bird has a flatter bill, resembling that of Bradornis, but a little more slender." (Haagner 1909); "Sheppardia Haagner, 1909, Ann. Transvaal Mus., 1, p. 180.  Type, by monotypy, Sheppardia gunningi Haagner." (Ripley in Peters, 1964, X, p. 33).
Synon. Gabelatrix, Prosheppardia, Vibrissosylvia.

gunningi
Dr Jan Willem Bowdewyn Gunning (1860-1912) Dutch zoologist, Director of Pretoria Mus. 1897-1912 (Sheppardia).

SUBSPECIES

East Coast Akalat (East Coast)
SCI Name: Sheppardia gunningi sokokensis
sokokensis
Sokoke Forest, eastern Kenya.

East Coast Akalat (Montane)
SCI Name: Sheppardia gunningi 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).

East Coast Akalat (Benson's)
SCI Name: Sheppardia gunningi bensoni
bensoni
● Constantine Walter Benson (1909-1982) English colonial administrator, ornithologist, collector (syn. Ammomanes deserti geyri, syn. Apalis chapini strausae, syn. Apalis thoracica whitei, Calamonastides, subsp. Cinnyris fuelleborni, subsp. Cisticola chiniana, subsp. Cyanolanius comorensis, subsp. Monticola sharpei, syn. Phyllastrephus terrestris suahelicus, syn. Poeoptera kenricki, ‡Psittacula, subsp. Sheppardia gunningi).
● Rex R. Benson (fl. 1931) US collector in Panama (subsp. Basileuterus melanogenys, subsp. Catharus gracilirostris).
● Col. Harry Coupland Benson (1857-1924) US Army (subsp. Callipepla douglasii).

East Coast Akalat (Gunning's)
SCI Name: Sheppardia gunningi gunningi
gunningi
Dr Jan Willem Bowdewyn Gunning (1860-1912) Dutch zoologist, Director of Pretoria Mus. 1897-1912 (Sheppardia).