Akalat
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| Genus: | Sheppardia Haagner, 1909
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The akalats (stressed on the second syllable)[1] 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.
These are African forest-dwelling species.
Species are:
- Bocage's Akalat, Sheppardia bocagei
- Lowland Akalat, Sheppardia cyornithopsis
- Equatorial Akalat, Sheppardia aequatorialis
- Sharpe's Akalat, Sheppardia sharpei
- East Coast Akalat, Sheppardia gunningi
- Gabela Akalat, Sheppardia gabela
- Usambara Akalat, Sheppardia montana
- Iringa Akalat, Sheppardia lowei
- Rubeho Akalat, Sheppardia aurantiithorax
Etymology
Sharpe, who had never visited Africa, associated the akalats, in their Bulu appellation, with birds of "different kinds" occuring in the forest understorey.[2] George L. Bates, his main collector in West Africa, denoted them more specifically as "little members of the genus Turdinus, which are called in Fang and Bulu "Akalat"....".[3] The Turdinus were a group of Old World babblers, now placed in the genus Illadopsis, and classed as near-babblers.
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 genus Trichastoma, i.e. Illadopsis. Reichenow however classed Turdinus batesi as an Alethe,[4] then in the Turdidae, followed by Jackson and Sclater in 1938 who applied it to Sheppardia specifically.[5] Mackworth-Praed and Grant (1953, 1955) and Williams (1963 - 1980's) retained the name in the latter context. In 1964 the name was still recorded as denoting both these groups, namely the Malococincla, i.e. Illadopsis near-babblers in West Africa, and the Sheppardia chats in East African literature,[6] 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.[7]
References
- ^ As recorded by George L. Bates
- ^ Sharpe, R.B. (1904). "On further Collections of Birds from the Efulen District of Camaroon, West Africa, Part II". Ibis. 46 (4): 591–638.
- ^ Sharpe, R.B. (1908). "On further Collections of Birds from the Efulen District of Camaroon, West Africa, Parts V & VI". Ibis. 46 (9): 119.
- ^ Reichenow, A. (1905). Die Vögel Afrikas, Vol. 3. Neudamm: J. Neumann.
- ^ Jackson, F.J. & Sclater W.L. (1938). The birds of Kenya Colony and the Uganda Protectorate, Vol. 2. London: Gurney & Jackson.
- ^ A New Dictionary of Birds, ed. Sir A. Landsborough Thomson (London, Nelson, 1964)
- ^ Culture Vive, Phénomène des Présages Chez les Fang/Beti, under Beti-Fang-Bulu, retrieved 2011-3-08
{{citation}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help): 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.