Gold-fronted Fulvetta

SCI Name:  Alcippe variegaticeps
Protonym:  Alcippe variegaticeps Bull.Mus.Nat.Hist.Nat.Paris(2), 4 p.383
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Leiothrichidae / Alcippe
Taxonomy Code:  gofful2
Type Locality:  Yaoshan, Kwangsi.
Author:  Yen
Publish Year:  1932
IUCN Status:  Vulnerable

DEFINITIONS

ALCIPPE
(Leiotrichidae; † Brown-cheeked Fulvetta A. poioicephala) Gr. myth. Alcippe, daughter of Aries or Mars the god of war, and who was ravished by a son of Poseidon (or, according to some sources, by Poseidon himself). She is perhaps the most famous of half a dozen women of this name in antiquity (including a countrywoman mentioned by Virgil, an attendant of Helen in Homer's epic, a sister-in-law to Cecrops, and a courtesan); "lastly, the T. poiocephala, Jerdon, I refer to an extensive Malayan group, exemplified by Malacopteron, Eyton, which is my Trichastoma, XI, 795, and is hereinafter subdivided, the species in question falling under my division Alcippe, p. 384.  ...   Alcippe, Nobis.  Has the bill much shorter than the head, approaching nearly in form to that of Leiothrix; in other respects resembling the foregoing; but the toes generally are small and proportionate.   1. A. cinerea? (Eyton).   ...   2. A. affinis; Trichastoma affine, Nobis, passim.   ...   3. A. poiocephala; Timalia poiocephala, Jerdon.   ...   4. A. atriceps; Brachypteryx atriceps, Jerdon.   ...   5. A. (?) sepiaria; Brachypteryx sepiaria, Horsfield.   ...   6. A. (?) bicolor; Brachypteryx bicolor, Lesson." (Blyth 1844); "Alcippe Blyth, 1844, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 13, pp. 370, 384. Type, by original designation, Thimalia poioicephala Jerdon." (Deignan in Peters, 1964, X, p. 397); "Alcippe Blyth, 1844, Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, XIII, p. 384.  Type, by subsequent designation (G. Gray, 1846, Genera Birds, I, p. 209), Trichastoma affine Blyth, 1842." (Laurent Raty in litt.; "So far as I can assess, if we want to use Alcippe in the way it is used now, a case should be submitted to the Commission asking that they change the type of the genus-group name to match current usage.  The alternative is to apply the Code, which means to do what Oberholser told us had to be done a century ago - and which was not done.") (see Alcippornis);  "FAMILY  ALCIPPEIDAE  ...  The position of Alcippe relative to Leiothrichidae and Pellorneidae is not unanimously supported and varies among studies  ...  Because the divergence between these three clades occurred early during the Miocene, however, Cai and colleagues suggested that the genus Alcippe, which is isolated in phylogenetic trees, should be placed in a monogeneric family." (Fjeldså, Christidis & Ericson (eds.) 2020).
Synon. Alcippornis, Proparus.

variegaticeps
L. variegatus  variegated  < variare  to variegate  < varius  various, diverse; -ceps  -capped  < caput, capitis  head .