Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club
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Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club Volume 141 No. 1 (Online) ISSN 2513-9894 (Online) March 2021 Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club ISSN 2513-9894 (Online) Edited by Guy M. Kirwan Associate Editors: Robert Prŷs-Jones; Lincoln Fishpool Volume 141 Number 1, pages 1–116 CONTENTS Club Announcements ........................................................................................................................................... 1 MORRIS, P. A reassessment of issues surrounding the Hastings Rarities, with particular reference to supposed fraud by George Bristow........................................................................................................ 3 MARAIS, E., PEACOCK, F. & ALLPORT, G. First record of Forbes-Watson’s Swift Apus berliozi in southern Africa, with comments on vocal and visual identification ................................................ 21 WILSON, J.-J. Birds from Sumatra given by Sir Stamford Raffles to Lord Stanley: links to names, types and drawings .................................................................................................................................................. 39 DAVID, N., ELLIOTT, A. & BRUCE, M. D. The valid specific name of Sulawesi’s Maroon-chinned Fruit Dove: gularis Quoy & Gaimard, 1832 ................................................................................................ 50 ROUND, P. D., PROMNUN, P., MANAWATTANA, S. & JAHAN, I. Non-breeding season records of the Alpine Leaf Warbler Phylloscopus occisinensis ................................................................... 59 PRŶS-JONES, R. P., MANEGOLD, A. & WHITE, J. The conundrum of an overlooked skeleton referable to Imperial Woodpecker Campephilus imperialis in the collection of the Natural History Museum at Tring ........................................................................................................................................... 66 DIAMOND, J. & BISHOP, K. D. Avifauna of the Adelbert Mountains, New Guinea: why is Fire-maned Bowerbird Sericulus bakeri the mountains’ only endemic bird species? .......................... 75 HALLEY, M. R. Neotypification of Catharus ustulatus (Nuttall) ................................................................ 109 PRŶS-JONES, R. P. The provenance of an exceptionally early specimen of Cape Verde Barn Owl Tyto alba detorta E. Hartert, 1913 .................................................................................................................. 113 BOC Office c/o Natural History Museum at Tring, Akeman Street, Tring, Herts. HP23 6AP, UK E-mail: [email protected] Tel. +44 (0)208 8764728 / 07919174898 Registered Charity No. 1169733 www.boc-online.org Published by the British Ornithologists’ Club Typeset by Eng-Li Green, New Mexico, USA Club Announcements 1 Bull.Bull. B.O.C.B.O.C. 20212021 141(1)141(1) Bulletin of the BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS’ CLUB Vol. 141 No. 1 Published 9 March 2021 CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS FORTHCOMING MEETINGS See also BOC website: http://www.boc-online.org The next meeting is a Zoom event. It is free to attend, but pre-registration is essential: https://www.eventbrite. co.uk/e/abernethy-forest-its-history-and-ecology-tickets-138519045193?ref=estw Monday 29 March 2021—6.30 pm—Ron Summers—Abernethy Forest: its history and ecology Abstract.—Abernethy Forest is a nature reserve managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The forest has more Caledonian pinewood than any other area in Scotland. The trees in these remaining fragments are lineal descendants of an ancient forest that once spread across the Highlands of Scotland. Since the Bronze or Iron Age, the forest has been used by people for hunting, exploitation of timber, farming and now nature conservation. This talk will describe the changes caused by people and the natural processes that have shaped the forest, providing an environment for an astonishing diversity of wildlife (3,800 species of plants, fungi and animals). The lives and status of the ‘big three’ birds of pinewoods will be described: Western Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus, Crested Tit Lophophanes cristatus and crossbills (Loxia spp.). Comparisons will be drawn with natural forests in continental Europe, revealing the conservation measures that need to be taken to restore lost features in an attempt to create a present-natural forest. Biography.—Dr Ron Summers is a Principal Conservation Scientist at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and, over the past 30 years, has been involved in studies of a range of Highland birds, particularly in pinewoods. Having attained a Ph.D. at the Univ. of Aberdeen on the ecology of European Flounder Platichthys flesus, he undertook post-doctoral work at the Univ. of Cape Town, where he studied sandpipers on Langebaan Lagoon, providing data that supported the case to designate the area a national park. Subsequently, he studied the effects of Upland Geese Chloephaga picta on sheep farming in the Falkland Islands, followed by work with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, initially on the movements of European Starlings Sturnus vulgaris in relation to the spread of pig diseases, and latterly on the effect of grazing by Brent Geese Branta bernicla on fields of winter wheat. He further outlined a hypothesis about the role of lemmings in determining the breeding success and population growth of these geese; this link also applied to the waders he had studied in South Africa, and he subsequently travelled to Siberia to help test his theory on the birds’ breeding grounds. The Arctic has always held an appeal and he has made many trips there, notably as part of a long-running study of Purple Sandpipers Calidris maritima, which will culminate in a forthcoming monograph. Friends of the BOC The BOC has from 2017 become an online organisation without a paying membership, but instead one that aspires to a supportive network of Friends who share its vision of ornithology—see: http://boc-online.org/. Anyone wishing to become a Friend of the BOC and support its development should pay UK£25.00 by standing order or online payment to the BOC bank account: Barclays Bank, 16 High Street, Holt, NR25 6BQ, Norfolk Sort Code: 20-45-45 Account number: 53092003 Account name: The British Ornithologists’ Club Friends receive regular updates about Club events and are also eligible for discounts on the Club’s Occasional Publications. It would assist our Treasurer, Richard Malin (e-mail: [email protected]), if you would kindly inform him if you intend becoming a Friend of the BOC. © 2021 The Authors; This is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the ISSN-2513-9894 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence, which permits unrestricted use, (Online) distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Club Announcements 2 Bull. B.O.C. 2021 141(1) The Bulletin and other BOC publications Since volume 137 (2017), the Bulletin of the BOC has been an online journal, published quarterly, that is available to all readers without charge. Furthermore, it does not levy any publication charges (including for colour plates) on authors of papers and has a median publication time from receipt to publication of five to six months. Prospective authors are invited to contact the Bulletin editor, Guy Kirwan (GMKirwan@ aol.com), to discuss future submissions or look at http://boc-online.org/bulletin/bulletin-contributions. Back numbers up to volume 136 (2016) are available via the Biodiversity Heritage Library website: www. biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/46639#/summary; vols. 132–136 are also available on the BOC website: http://boc-online.org/ BOC Occasional Publications are available from the BOC Office or online at [email protected]. Future BOC-published checklists will be available from NHBS and as advised on the BOC website. As its online repository, the BOC uses the British Library Online Archive (in accordance with IZCN 1999, Art. 8.5.3.1). © 2021 The Authors; This is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the ISSN-2513-9894 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence, which permits unrestricted use, (Online) distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Pat Morris 3 Bull. B.O.C. 2021 141(1) A reassessment of issues surrounding the Hastings Rarities, with particular reference to supposed fraud by George Bristow by Pat Morris Received 15 April 2020; revised 19 August 2020; published 9 March 2021 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A80704E8-3C70-4547-939C-D2016826B39C Summary.—In 1962, a special issue of British Birds alleged that the number and pattern of records of rare birds from around Hastings, in southern England, between 1892 and 1930 were so improbable that fraud was the only reasonable explanation. A press conference resulted in absurdly exaggerated reports that encouraged general acceptance of the alleged fraud and in particular that George Bristow, a local taxidermist, was responsible. There are potential weaknesses in the statistical analysis of the purported fraud, and the case against Bristow was based on probability and innuendo, not solid evidence. Plausible information from Bristow and the respected ornithologist Norman Ticehurst was largely ignored, as were the practicalities of fraud, especially during wartime and in the absence of modern deep-freeze facilities. The lead author was apparently prejudiced against taxidermists. The allegations unfairly tainted Bristow and