/Y? 30 SHORT NOTES OSTRICH 55 populations is a comparatively recent deve- the good offices of Dr A. Prigogine. Dr Prigogine stud- lopment. One gains the impression from the ied the material along with me at both centres. material studied that the situation is perhaps still fluid. REFERENCES It is significant that in hartlaubii subspp., apart ASH, J. S. 1981. A new race of the Scaly Babbler Tur- from the hoariness over the distal head common to doides squamulatus from Somalia. Bull. Brit. Orn. many Turdoides spp., there is no indication in any Club 101:399-403. of the specimens examined that odd mutants re- CHAPIN, J. P. 1953. Birds of the Belgian Congo, Part 3. sembling leucopygius races occur in the said popu- Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 75a:238-240. DEIGNAN, H. G. 1964. In continuation of Peters' lations. Check-List Birds of the World, 10:344-345. Cam- Resulting from this enquiry, it is concluded that bridge, Mass: Harvard University. it is desirable to split the present species Turdoides FEIEDMANN, H. 1927. A new babbler from the Belgian leucopygius into separate northern and southern Congo. Proc. New England Zool. Club 10:11. FRIEDMANN, H. 1937. Birds collected by the Childs Frick species, that on the South African list becoming expedition to Ethiopia and Kenya Colony. U.S. Natn. TURDOIDES HARTLAUBII (Bocage) Hart- Mus. Bull. 1953:91-93. laub's Babbler, with races T. h. hartlaubii and T. h. HALL , B. P. & MOREAU , R. E. 1970. An atlas of speciation griseosquamatus Clancey, 1974. in African passerine birds. London: British Museum (Nat. Hist.). REICHENOW, A. 1904-1905. Die Vogel Afrikas, Vol. 3 Neudamm: J. Neumann. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS RIDGWAY, R. 1912. Color standards and color nomen- clature. Washington D.C.: The author. For facilities while studying at the British Museum SCLATER, W. L. 1930. Systema avium aethiopicarum, (Nat. Hist.), Tring, I am grateful to both I. C. J. Gal- Part 2. London: B.O.U. braith and P. R. Colston of the staff. In Belgium I was WOLTERS, H. E. 1980. Die Vogelarten der Erde. Ham- able to consult the collections at the Musee Royal de burg: Paul Parey. l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, and in the Institut Royal WHITE, C. M. N. 1961. Revised check list of African des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, through broadbills, etc. Lusaka: Government Printer. Syringeal Morphology and Relationships of The name Chaetops was originally proposed by Chaetops (Timaliidac) and Certain South African Swainson (1832) in the Merulinae (= Turdinae), Muscicapidae and he rendered the name as Chaetops. Modern rules of nomenclature proscribe diacritical marks, which in this case is just as well, as there is no ety- Storrs L. Olson, FitzPatrick Institute, University of mological justification for the diaeresis. Despite Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa. Per- the original association of Chaetops with the manent address: National Museum of Natural thrushes, for most of its taxonomic history it has History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, been placed in the Timaliidae, especially after DC. 20560 USA. Sharpe (1883) propounded his much expanded concept of that family, wherein Chaetops ap- The genus Chaetops comprises two taxa of peared in his "Group 7" or "Crateropodes", A petrophilous ten-primaried oseines endemic to timaliid relationship for Chaetops is reflected in South Africa. These have usually been treated as many standard works on African birds (e.g. Sclater conspecific subspecies, but Winterbottom (1973), 1930; McLachlan & Liversidge 1978). followed by Clancey (1980), has suggested that The return of Chaetops to the thrushes evidently their allopatric distribution, differences in size, dates to Ripley's (1952:15) remark that "Tham- proportions of the tail, and coloration, argue for nolaea. a much larger bird [than Pentholaea], ap- the eastern form, C. aurantius, being considered proaches the wheatears [Oenanthe] as does Chae- specifically distinct from the typical western form, tops which resembles it in pattern". In this work he C. frenatus. I concur in this, because treating the placed Chaetops between Thamnolaea and Myr- two forms as conspecific only obscures their differ- mecocichla, whereas later (Ripley 1964), Chaetops ences and implies a state of knowledge concerning appeared between Pinarornis and Drymodes. On their relationships that does not exist. the basis of the syrinx, however, Drymodes was 1984 SHORT NOTES 31 subsequently shown not to be a thrush (Harrison mens of birds. Indeed, until I was able to remedy 1976). A turdine relationship for Chaetops has the deficiency, there was not a single skeleton or lately been adopted by many authors. For exam- fluid-preserved specimen of Chaetops available ple, White (1962) considered Chaetops to be close anywhere (Wood et al. 1982a, b). In 1983 I was to Cercotrichas (sensu lato) and Hall & Moreau able to obtain five specimens of the Cape Rock- (1970:114) regarded Chaetops as "typically tur- jumper C. frenatus from Three Sisters Peak, above dine in its colour and pattern", and they thought it the town of Kleinmond, in the southwestern Cape to share characters with Monticola and Cercotri- Province. A pair of these were preserved whole in chas. In the S.A.O.S. Checklist (Clancey, 1980) fluid and the other three, two males and a female, Chaetops is placed in the Turdidae, between were prepared as complete skeletons and partial Pinarornis and Erythropygia. Hitherto, all judge- skins, with the syrinx of each being kept separately ments concerning the systematics of Chaetops in alcohol (all specimens in the National Museum have been made solely on external characters. of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution). In a most important and satisfying study of sy- Examination of three syringes of Chaetops fre- ringeal morphology, Ames (1975) showed that the natus shows that this species has the generalized "true" muscicapids (Muscicapini auct.) and the oscine configuration and does not have the "tur- thrushes (Turdinae auct.) share a unique, presum- dine thumb". Hence, by definition, Chaetops is ably derived, condition of the syrinx wherein the not a thrush and cannot be included in the Musci- muscles M. bronchialis posticus and M. broncho- capidae with the thrushes. For the present, the trachealis posticus form a distinct bulging projec- best alternative seems to be to return Chaetops to tion, visible to the naked eye, that Ames termed the Timaliidae, with the recognition that this fam- the "turdine thumb". Such a distinctive character ily is already notorious for being a miscellaneous is of immense value in attempting to ascertain re- collection of taxa whose affinities have not yet lationships among members of the extremely been precisely determined. Better to have the homogeneous group of oscine passerines. Timaliidae be a bit more heterogeneous than to Although Ames (1975) adopted a basically con- destroy the monophyly of the Muscicapidae by servative taxonomic approach, I would carry his including Chaetops in it. discovery to its logical conclusion by defining the Additionally, I was able to examine the syringes Muscicapidae on the presence of the "turdine of several species that Ames (1975) did not list, al- thumb". Thus the family would include the typi- though he examined other members of the same cally muscicapine genera Muscicapa, Niltava, genera. Erythropygia coryphaea, Cossypha caffra, Ficedula, Rhinomyias, Melaenomis (including and Cercomela sinuata all have the "turdine Bradomis), as well as the true thrushes (see Ames thumb", as would be expected. Of slightly more 1975: Table 1). I would not continue to separate significance is the fact that this character is also the thrushes as a subfamily, Turdinae. As Ames present in Melaenomis silens, a species with a (1975:116) noted, the muscicapine genera are less superficially shrike-like appearance (McLachlan diverse than the thrushes "but many are far from & Liversidge 1978) that at times is placed in a sep- typical flycatchers in the sense that Muscicapa arate genus Sigelus {e.g. Clancey 1980). The syrinx striata is usually considered to be", and it certainly proves a muscicapid relationship for silens to be. has not been demonstrated that either of these correct; an examination of skeletons of this subgroups is monophyletic. species, Melaenomis pammelaina, and M. Any species that lacks the "turdine thumb" ("Bradornis") mariquensis disclosed no characters would have to be excluded from the Muscicapidae, upon which any generic separation could be as defined by syringeal morphology, until some founded. other specialized character can be found by which to define a larger family-level taxon. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There were a few genera of "Old World Insect Eaters" for which Ames was unable to ascertain This research was undertaken while a Research As- the morphology of the syrinx, among which was sociate at the FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town. Expenses for field work were underwritten by a Chaetops. This was due to the lamentable lack of Fluid Research Grant from the Smithsonian Institution, emphasis that collectors in South Africa have through S. Dillon Ripley. For leading me through Chae- placed on the preservation of anatomical speci- tops country I am indebted to the indefatigable Anthony 32 SHORT NOTES OSTRTCH 55 Rebelo, and for following me I must also thank Vincent RIPLEY, S. D. 1964. Subfamily Turdinae. Pages Bartnick, my wife Helen F. James, and son Travis, all of 13-227. In MAYR.E. &PAYNTER, R. A.,Jr. (eds) Check- whom suffered the rigours of extended climbs in search list of birds of the world. Vol. 10. Cambridge, Massa- of an often elusive quarry. I am also grateful to Richard chusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. K. Brooke for information concerning Chaetops and to SHARPS, R. B. 1883. Catalogue of the birds in the him, P. A. Clancey, and R. Prys-Jones for comments on British Museum. Vol. 7. London: British Museum the manuscript. (Natural History). ScLATER, W. L. 1930. Systema avium Aethiopicarum.