Proposal (404) to South American
Classification Committee
Change English name
of Scytalopus griseicollis
This
proposal is to change the English name of Scytalopus griseicollis. For
a species that has been recognized formally for only 11 years, there is a broad
choice of 5 names based just on published treatments. The current
SACC ‘English name is "Matorral Tapaculo":
"Matorral
Tapaculo" was proposed as an English name for S. griseicollis by
Krabbe & Schulenberg (1997) and was used by Krabbe & Schulenberg
(2003), Restall et al. (2006) and Salaman et al. (2001, 2007,
2008). It forms the current baseline name and is arguably the most
established of the various names.
Other
possible vernacular names include “Rufous-rumped Tapaculo” (Hilty 2003; Gill
& Wright 2006), “Pale-bellied Tapaculo” (Asociación
Bogotana de Ornitología 2000; Donegan & Avendaño-C. 2008), “Colombian
Tapaculo” (the previous name for S. infasciatus) and “Cundinamarca
Tapaculo” (used by Gill & Wright 2006 for S. infasciatus). S. infasciatus is not currently
recognized by SACC, following Proposal 390.
“Rufous-rumped”
has only been used for a Venezuelan population, which Donegan & Avendaño-C.
(2008) did not treat as part of S. griseicollis. The two
main taxonomic changes from that paper are now accepted by SACC, following
proposals 389 and 390 (although SACC
does not deal with subspecies).
The
two geographical names are hardly informative as various other tapaculos occur
both in Colombia and Cundinamarca, and S. griseicollis is not
endemic to either region. S. griseicollis is
near-endemic to Colombia but also occurs in Tama in Venezuela (this population
being of an undescribed subspecies described but not named by Donegan &
Avendaño 2008). There are other species or putative species of
tapaculos (S. rodriguezi, S. stilesi, S.
"canus"), which would better, match the name "Colombian
Tapaculo" than S. griseicollis.
Use
of the Spanish word “Matorral” for S. griseicollis would follow the
majority of recent leading texts. An important habitat of S.
griseicollis is primary páramo and subpáramo
(as opposed to scrub), making the name "matorral" somewhat misleading
as suggesting that the species prefers scrub or secondary habitats, although
the name is not incorrect. Also, "Matorral" is often used
to refer to habitats in other parts of the Neotropics particularly in Chile but
also in Brazil. However, the term is not frequently used in Colombia
to refer the habitats where S. griseicollis is found. Finally, "Matorral" is not a word
in the English language, but a word borrowed from Spanish. This does
not preclude its use, given that there are lots of other Spanish words in
English bird names, but bears note. It is also noteworthy that so
many authors have sought to establish a different name for this species, which
suggests that the name "Matorral Tapaculo" is not subject to
widespread support.
“Pale-bellied
Tapaculo” is a good descriptive name for S. griseicollis, but is
not as widely used as "Matorral Tapaculo". The advantage
of this name is that S. griseicollis is an unusually pale
tapaculo meaning that it lends itself well to a morphologically based name, a
rarity in this genus.
References:
Donegan,
T.M. & Avendaño-C., J.E. 2008. Notes on Tapaculos (Passeriformes:
Rhinocryptidae) of the Eastern Andes of Colombia and Venezuelan Andes, with a
new subspecies of Scytalopus griseicollis from
Colombia. Ornitología Colombiana 6: 24-65.
http://www.ornitologiacolombiana.org/oc6/doneganyavendano.pdf
Other
references mentioned are cited in that paper.
Recommendation: "Matorral
Tapaculo", a Krabbe/Schulenberg name, has a deal of history behind it, but
it is not inaccurate. "Pale-bellied Tapaculo", a Stiles
name, is arguably subjectively 'better', so if the proposal passes,
Pale-bellied would be the proposed new name, because I do not recommend
Rufous-rumped or Colombian for reasons stated above. I have no
strong view either way on vote "Pale-bellied," vs.
"Matorral," but it would be helpful to stabilize the nomenclature for
this species were SACC to take a form view on this point.
Anonymous, August 2009
_________________________________________________________________________
Comments
from Stotz:
“NO. I think that Matorral Tapaculo seems like at perfectly good
name so I can see no reason to change it. Even if Pale-bellied
Tapaculo is an appropriate name it seems like plumage-based names in Scytalopus are
less preferable to habitat-based names.”
Comments
from Stiles:
“YES, for reasons given by Anonymous. Here, I emphasize that S.
griseicollis is NOT strictly a “matorral” bird but, at least in the Bogotá
region, also occurs regularly in the understory of primary or old secondary
high Andean forest (one of the reasons that I had mistakenly thought that two
species were involved, an argument thoroughly rebutted by Donegan &
Avendaño).
Comment
from Frank Gill: “Please note in
this discussion that the IOC changed the English name of S. griseicollis
to "Matorral" aligned with SACC.”
Additional
comments from Anonymous: “Consistency of approach between this proposal and
Proposal 407 would be welcomed. The two proposals involve basically the
same issue but votes of some committee members have surprisingly gone different
ways. In Proposal 407, the names
"Campo Pipit" and "Chaco Pipit" are being argued and
assumed to be misnomers even though, according to the proposal, the
species in question has occurred in Campo habitat (known specimens) and winters
in the Chaco. Another name better describing the species' habitat is
therefore proposed with support so far. In this proposal 404,
"Matorral" Tapaculo occurs in some habitats that, at a stretch,
one could perhaps think of as akin to "Matorral".
"Matorral" is more commonly used as a name for a habitat in Chile:
(see Manuel Nores' comments on proposal 393 for example). The species'
principal habitat is Paramo (with Paramo Tapaculo already used by S. canus)
and it is also found in secondary high-elevation growth and forest border of
taller forests. Proposals 404 and 407 both involve names on the
current baseline that describe little-used or less-used habitats for a species
where other (better) alternatives are available. I don't have very
strong feelings on this proposal or proposal 407. However,
consistency may be a virtue.”
Comments
from Robbins:
“YES. I too had related the word “matorral” with habitat in Brazil
and Chile, so given Anonymous’ and Gary’s comments about the habitat
preferences of griseicollis and the name that Gary had used earlier for
this taxon apparently is appropriate, I support changing the English name to
Pale-bellied Tapaculo.”
Comments
from Zimmer:
“YES. I love habitat names,
provided the species is unique to the habitat – otherwise, it is just
misleading. In this case, “Matorral” appears to not be particularly
informative. Like Doug, I think that plumage-based names in Scytalopus should
generally be avoided, but it seems in this case as if “Pale-bellied” would be
appropriate.”