Proposal (153) to South American
Classification Committee
Change English Name of Chamaeza
ruficauda to "Brazilian Antthrush"
Effect
on South American Check-list: This proposal is the second of three that
will attempt to stabilize the English names of three species of Chamaeza
antthrushes that share an intertwined taxonomic and nomenclatural history.
This proposal would change the English name of a species on our list, Chamaeza
ruficauda, from "Rufous-tailed Antthrush", to "Brazilian
Antthrush".
Background: See the detailed
history of this complex under Proposal #152.
Analysis: Although the
published vocal analysis upon which Willis based his split of these antthrushes
was weak, subsequent work has confirmed his conclusions regarding the
relationships of the Atlantic Forest populations to one another. C. campanisona, C. ruficauda, and C.
meruloides clearly behave as good biological species that largely replace
one another altitudinally, but with some overlap. They are vocally and
morphologically distinct from one another. Nominate ruficauda is
also clearly distinct from C. turdina of Colombia/Venezuela, differing
markedly in morphological characters and having a dramatically different song
and calls. There is less documented justification for the separation of meruloides from
turdina, which have somewhat similar songs, but I think that Willis's
conclusions regarding the morphological differences and huge range disjunction
are correct, and that maintaining all of these as separate species is the
proper course. The species-level taxonomic changes proposed by Willis have been
universally adopted.
Conversely,
the application of English names has been a free-for-all. I will make arguments
regarding the English name of turdina and meruloides in
separate proposals. This proposal will focus on C. ruficauda. One
the one hand, we have "Rufous-tailed Antthrush" which dates back at
least to Cory & Hellmayr (1924) [who used "Colombian Rufous-tailed Antthrush"
for C. turdina, and "Venezuelan Rufous-tailed Antthrush" for C.
chionogaster] and was, as far as I can determine, used by all authors up
until 1992, at which time Willis split turdina/chionogaster from
nominate ruficauda. In that paper, Willis suggested English names for
the newly described C. meruloides, and for the newly split C. turdina
(with chionogaster), but made no recommendation regarding any change of
English name for C. ruficauda. Subsequent to this split, various
authors (Sibley & Monroe 1990, Sick 1993, Clements 2000) have employed the
English name of "Brazilian Antthrush" for C. ruficauda. The
species goes by "Rufous-tailed Antthrush" on our base list, and
Krabbe and Schulenberg (2003) in HBW Volume 8 also use this name.
C.
ruficauda does
have an entirely rufous tail (lacking a black subterminal band or a pale
terminal fringe), which is one of the plumage characters separating it from the
elevationally parapatric C. campanisona, which has an
olivaceous-brown tail with a black subterminal band and a whitish terminal
fringe, and from the locally syntopic C. meruloides, which also has a
fairly rufescent brown tail, but with a pale tip. These features of the tail
are not particularly obvious in the field and are not the best means for
telling the three species apart. On plumage characters, these three species
represent minor variations on a common theme, and it would be difficult to
construct descriptive names involving plumage characters that would be
particularly informative. They are best separated on voice and on structural
characters. Indeed, from a purely descriptive standpoint, the best English name
for C. ruficauda would probably be "Long-tailed
Antthrush", because it is proportionately (and noticeably) longer-tailed
than the other two species. This all having been said, there is nothing
inaccurate in the name "Rufous-tailed Antthrush", and it has the
advantage of a long history, and agrees with the scientific name ruficauda.
The only disadvantage I can see to its retention is possible confusion
with turdina, which also used to be included under the name of
"Rufous-tailed Antthrush".
The
name "Brazilian Antthrush" has some appeal, because it's adoption
would circumvent any confusion stemming from application of the old name of "Rufous-tailed"
to only one of the subsequent splits. It is also a simpler name, and one that
highlights the fact that ruficauda is primarily a Brazilian bird
(occurring also in northeastern Argentina in Misiones).
Recommendation: As much as I like the
idea of geography-based names for birds with restricted ranges in general, and
the idea of highlighting Brazil and its wonderful avifauna in particular, I
don't think it is warranted in this instance. The name "Rufous-tailed Antthrush"
is long established, accurate (even if not overly helpful), and is in perfect
agreement with the Latin name. Even though the species is primarily a Brazilian
bird, it is known from Argentina, and therefore, if any Chamaeza were
deserving of the name "Brazilian Antthrush" it should be meruloides,
which is endemic to Brazil. I recommend a "NO" vote on this proposal,
which would have the effect of retaining the English name of
"Rufous-tailed Antthrush" for C. ruficauda.
Literature
Cited
CLEMENTS, J. F. 2000.
Birds of the world: a checklist. Fifth Edition. Ibis Publishing Company, Vista,
California.
CORY, C. B., AND C. E.
HELLMAYR. 1924. Catalog of birds of the Americas. Publications of the Field
Museum of Natural History (Zoological Series) 13:3 (369 pp.)
HILTY, S. L. 2003.
Birds of Venezuela. Second Edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New
Jersey.
KRABBE, N. K., AND T.
S. SCHULENBERG. 2003. Family Formicariidae (Ground Antbirds). In DEL
HOYO, J., A. ELLIOTT AND D. CHRISTIE (eds.). Handbook of Birds of the World:
Volume 8. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain.
RIDGELY, R. S., AND G.
TUDOR. 1994. Birds of South America, Volume II: the suboscine passerines.
University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas.
SIBLEY, C. G., AND B.
L. MONROE, JR. 1990. Distribution and taxonomy of birds of the world. Yale
University Press, New Haven and London.
SICK, H. 1985.
Ornitologia Brasileira, uma introdçao. Editora Univ.
Brasília, Brasília.
SICK, H. 1993. Birds in
Brazil. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
SICK, H., AND J. F.
PACHECO. 1997. Ornitologia Brasileira. Editora Nova Fronteira,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
WILLIS, E. 1992.
Three Chamaeza Antthrushes in eastern Brazil (Formicariidae).
Condor 94:110-116.
Kevin J. Zimmer,
December 2004
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Comments
from Robbins:
"NO. I vote "no" in changing Chamaeza ruficauda to
Brazilian Antthrush for reasons supplied by Kevin."
Comments
from Pacheco:
"NO. As justificativas de Zimmer me parecem aceitáveis para
votar pela manutenção de "Rufous-tailed Antthrush", o nome
tradicional."
Comments
from Jaramillo:
"NO. I don't like leaving the name
of a split taxon to refer to only one of the split entities. However, the time
when this is appropriate is when the name has historic and widespread use as it
does in this case. I don't think that keeping Rufous-tailed Antthrush for ruficauda
will cause confusion, and I do like the fact that it matches the
binomial."
Comments
from Stiles:
"NO. I agree that the two arguments - long-established, agreeing with the
Latin name - give "Rufous-tailed" the edge over "Brazilian"
- especially as the bird is not endemic to Brazil!"
Comments
from Nores:
"NO. Pienso que "Rufous-tailed Antthrush es un nombre
correcto ya que la especie tiene cola rufa y está de acuerdo con el nombre
científico. Brazilian Antthrush,
por el contrario, no es un nombre totalmente correcto ya que la especie, como
Zimmer señala, habita también Argentina y probablemente también Paraguay."