The akalats ( stressed on the second syllable) are medium-sized

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores we ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Sheppardia''. They were formerly placed in the

thrush Thrush may refer to: Birds * Thrush (bird), any of the birds in the family Turdidae ** List of thrush species * Antthrushes, the Formicariidae family of birds * Dohrn's warbler, or Dohrn's thrush-babbler, a species ''Sylvia dohrni'' in the famil ...

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

, Turdidae, but are more often now treated as part of the Old World flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. The genus contains 11

Sub-Sahara Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

-dwelling

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

Taxonomy and etymology

The

''Sheppardia'' was introduced in 1909 by the South African ornithologist

Alwin Karl Haagner Alwin Karl Haagner (1 June 1880 – 15 September 1962) was a South African ornithologist and mammalogist, who was instrumental in the establishment of the Kruger National Park and in early measures to raise awareness and protect Southern African ...

with the

East coast akalat The east coast akalat or Gunning's robin (''Sheppardia gunningi'') is a small passerine bird which can be found in the east of Africa from Kenya to Mozambique, and is named after J. W. B. Gunning. This species is a forest-dwelling insectivorous ...

(''Sheppardia gunningi'') as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

. The name of the genus was chosen to honour the collector and farmer P. A. Sheppard.

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English people, English zoologist and ornithology, ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his car ...

, who had never visited Africa, associated the akalats, in their Bulu appellation, with birds of "different kinds" occurring in the forest understorey. His main collector in West Africa, George L. Bates, denoted them more specifically as "little members of the genus ''Turdinus'', which are called in

Fang A fang is a long, pointed tooth. In mammals, a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, used for biting and tearing flesh. In snakes, it is a specialized tooth that is associated with a venom gland (see snake venom). Spiders also have external fangs, ...

and Bulu "Akalat"....". The latter genus denoted a group of

Old World babbler The Old World babblers or Timaliidae, are a family (biology), family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft, fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the g ...

s, currently classed as near-babblers in the genus ''

Illadopsis ''Illadopsis'' (from ''illas'', Ancient Greek, Greek for Thrush (bird), thrush and ''opsis'', appearing) is a genus of secretive forest birds in the family Pellorneidae. All are found in tropical Africa, where they frequent the lower strata of ...

''.

David Armitage Bannerman David Armitage Bannerman (27 November 1886 – 6 April 1979) was a British ornithologist. From 1919 to 1952 he was Curator of the British Museum of Natural History (now called the Natural History Museum, London). Biography He was the son of Da ...

'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 ''Trichastoma'', which is ''Illadopsis''. Reichenow however classed '' Turdinus batesi'' as an '' Alethe'', then in the ''

Turdidae The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World flyca ...

'' (thrushes and flycatchers), followed by Jackson and Sclater in 1938 who applied it to ''Sheppardia'' specifically. Mackworth-Praed and Grant (1953, 1955) and Williams (1963 - 1980s) retained their usage. In 1964 the name was still recorded as denoting both groups, namely the ''Malococincla'', i.e. ''

'' near-babblers in West Africa, and the ''Sheppardia'' chats in East African literature, 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.: 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.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2050255 Bird genera Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa