Akalat
{{Short description|Genus of birds}}
{{Automatic Taxobox
| name = Akalats
| image = CalleneTurdinusKeulemans.jpg
| taxon = Sheppardia
| authority = Haagner, 1909
| type_species = Sheppardia gunningi{{cite web |url= https://www.aviansystematics.org/4th-edition-checklist?viewfamilies=183 |title= Muscicapidae |author= |date= |website= aviansystematics.org |publisher= The Trust for Avian Systematics |access-date= 2023-07-15}}
| type_species_authority = Haagner, 1909
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision = See text. }}
The akalats (stressed on the second syllable)As recorded by George L. Bates are medium-sized insectivorous birds in the genus Sheppardia. They were formerly placed in the thrush family, Turdidae, but are more often now treated as part of the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae.
The genus contains 11 Sub-Saharan forest-dwelling species:{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | title=Chats, Old World flycatchers | work=World Bird List Version 6.2 | url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/chats/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union| access-date=20 May 2016 }}
| class="wikitable" | |||
| Image | Common Name | Scientific Name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | Usambara akalat | Sheppardia montana | Usambara Mountains |
| - | Iringa akalat | Sheppardia lowei | Eastern Arc forests |
| - | Rubeho akalat | Sheppardia aurantiithorax | Rubeho Mountains |
| - | East coast akalat | Sheppardia gunningi | Nguu Mountains and eastern Afromontane |
| - | Sharpe's akalat | Sheppardia sharpei | Eastern Arc forests and northern Malawi |
| - | Bocage's akalat | Sheppardia bocagei | miombo region |
| - | Short-tailed akalat | Sheppardia poensis | Western High Plateau and Albertine Rift montane forests |
| - | Lowland akalat | Sheppardia cyornithopsis | African tropical rainforest |
| 120px | Equatorial akalat | Sheppardia aequatorialis | eastern Afromontane |
| 120px | Gabela akalat | Sheppardia gabela | western Angola |
| 120px | Grey-winged robin-chat | Sheppardia polioptera | Sub-Saharan Africa (rare in eastern and southern Africa) |
Taxonomy and etymology
The genus Sheppardia was introduced in 1909 by the South African ornithologist Alwin Karl Haagner with the East coast akalat (Sheppardia gunningi) as the type species.{{ cite journal | last=Haagner | first=Alwin Karl | author-link=Alwin Karl Haagner | year=1909 | title=Descriptions of two new species of flycatchers from the Portuguese south-east Africa | journal=Annals of the Transvaal Museum | volume=1 | pages=179–180 [180] | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/50470957 }} The name of the genus was chosen to honour the collector and farmer P. A. Sheppard.{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=355 }}{{cite web |last=Plug|first=C. |title=S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science|url=http://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=2570 |website=S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science |access-date=22 July 2021}}
Richard Bowdler Sharpe, who had never visited Africa, associated the akalats, in their Bulu appellation, with birds of "different kinds" occurring in the forest understorey.{{Cite journal | last = Sharpe | first = R.B. | title = On further collections of birds from the Efulen District of Camaroon, West Africa, Part II | journal = Ibis | volume = 46 | issue = 4 | pages = 591–638 | year = 1904 | url =https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/25210942 | doi=10.1111/j.1474-919x.1904.tb00524.x }} His main collector in West Africa, George L. Bates, denoted them more specifically as "little members of the genus Turdinus, which are called in Fang and Bulu "Akalat"....".{{Cite journal | last = Sharpe | first = R.B. | title = On further collections of birds from the Efulen District of Camaroon, West Africa, Part V | journal = Ibis | volume = 46 | issue = 9 | pages = 117–129 [119] | year = 1908 | url =https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8771113 | doi = 10.1111/j.1474-919X.1908.tb05213.x}} The latter genus denoted a group of Old World babblers, currently classed as near-babblers in the genus Illadopsis.
David Armitage Bannerman's volumes on West African birds, published from 1930 through to 1951, became well-established reference works for the region, and retained the name akalat for Trichastoma, which is Illadopsis. Reichenow however classed Turdinus batesi as an Alethe,{{Cite book | last = Reichenow | first = A.| title = Die Vögel Afrikas, Vol. 3 | publisher = Neudamm: J. Neumann | year = 1905 }} then in the Turdidae (thrushes and flycatchers), followed by Jackson and Sclater in 1938 who applied it to Sheppardia specifically.{{Cite book | last = Jackson | first = F.J. & Sclater W.L. | title = The birds of Kenya Colony and the Uganda Protectorate, Vol. 2 | publisher = London: Gurney & Jackson | year = 1938 }} Mackworth-Praed and Grant (1953, 1955) and Williams (1963 - 1980s) retained their usage. In 1964 the name was still recorded as denoting both groups, namely the Malococincla, i.e. Illadopsis near-babblers in West Africa, and the Sheppardia chats in East African literature,A New Dictionary of Birds, ed. Sir A. Landsborough Thomson (London, Nelson, 1964) though the latter convention prevailed in modern times.
Yet the calls of the aforementioned species only doubtfully agree with the akalat's appellation as an omen of death. It is recorded that the akalat's forest song, respectively referred to as "boofio" and "woofio" by the Bulu and Ntumu peoples, is believed by them to predict the death of a near parent who bids them farewell with this song.{{Citation |last=Culture Vive |title=Phénomène des Présages Chez les Fang/Beti, under Beti-Fang-Bulu |url=http://bonneculture.com/betifang/presages.htm |access-date=4 July 2017 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}: Un autre présage de mort est le chant de l’oiseau appelé «akalat», chez les Bulu «Boofio», chez les Ntumu «Woofio». Ce chant est toujours entendu dans la forêt et prédit la mort d’un proche parent qui par ce chant vous fait ses adieux.
References
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