The Key to Scientific Names
- ALCIPPE
(Leiothrichidae; † Brown-cheeked Fulvetta A. poioicephala) Gr. myth. Alcippe, daughter of Aries or Mars the god of war, and who was ravished by a son of Poseidon (or, according to some sources, by Poseidon himself). She is perhaps the most famous of half a dozen women of this name in antiquity (including a countrywoman mentioned by Virgil, an attendant of Helen in Homer's epic, a sister-in-law to Cecrops, and a courtesan); "lastly, the T. poiocephala, Jerdon, I refer to an extensive Malayan group, exemplified by Malacopteron, Eyton, which is my Trichastoma, XI, 795, and is hereinafter subdivided, the species in question falling under my division Alcippe, p. 384. ... Alcippe, Nobis. Has the bill much shorter than the head, approaching nearly in form to that of Leiothrix; in other respects resembling the foregoing; but the toes generally are small and proportionate. 1. A. cinerea? (Eyton). ... 2. A. affinis; Trichastoma affine, Nobis, passim. ... 3. A. poiocephala; Timalia poiocephala, Jerdon. ... 4. A. atriceps; Brachypteryx atriceps, Jerdon. ... 5. A. (?) sepiaria; Brachypteryx sepiaria, Horsfield. ... 6. A. (?) bicolor; Brachypteryx bicolor, Lesson." (Blyth 1844); "Alcippe Blyth, 1844, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 13, pp. 370, 384. Type, by original designation, Thimalia poioicephala Jerdon." (Deignan in Peters, 1964, X, p. 397); "Alcippe Blyth, 1844, Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, XIII, p. 384. Type, by subsequent designation (G. Gray, 1846, Genera Birds, I, p. 209), Trichastoma affine Blyth, 1842." (Laurent Raty in litt.; "So far as I can assess, if we want to use Alcippe in the way it is used now, a case should be submitted to the Commission asking that they change the type of the genus-group name to match current usage. The alternative is to apply the Code, which means to do what Oberholser told us had to be done a century ago - and which was not done.") (see Alcippornis); "FAMILY ALCIPPEIDAE ... The position of Alcippe relative to Leiothrichidae and Pellorneidae is not unanimously supported and varies among studies ... Because the divergence between these three clades occurred early during the Miocene, however, Cai and colleagues suggested that the genus Alcippe, which is isolated in phylogenetic trees, should be placed in a monogeneric family." (Fjeldså, Christidis & Ericson (eds.) 2020).
Synon. Alcippornis, Proparus.- Pseudoalcippe
(Sylviidae; syn. Sylvia Ϯ Ruwenzori Hill-babbler S. atriceps) Gr. ψευδος pseudos false; genus Alcippe Blyth, 1844, fulvetta; "I now come to Turdinus atriceps of Sharpe. We cannot allow this species to remain in the genus Turdinus. Just compare it to T. macrodactylum. The formation of the short fine bill, thin tarsus, and comparatively weak feet alone is sufficient to enable it to be placed in another genus, though it was the colour-pattern which first struck me as being so distinct. I was at once struck by the similarity of its colour-pattern to the five African birds mentioned above, which have hitherto been placed in the genus Alcippe— i.e., stierlingi Reich., abyssinicus Rüpp., monachus Reichw., claudei Alex. (the last two subspecies of abyssinicus), and pyrrhopterus Reichw. & Neum., the whole forming a well-marked group with grey underparts, fulvous upper parts, and with black or grey heads, all having the same wing-formula, slender bills with hooked upper mandible and weak rictal bristles, fine feet and tarsi. I propose for this compact little group the new generic name:— Pseudoalcippe, gen. nov., with type Turdinus atriceps Sharpe. Finally, I will ask you to compare A. cinerea (the type of the genus Alcippe) with T. macrodactylum (the type of the genus Turdinus), and Pseudoalcippe atriceps with them both, and I think you will see the force of my argument in uniting the little derelicts from the two groups under one generic name, and eradicating altogether the genera Turdinus and Alcippe from African Ornithology." (Bannerman 1923); "Pseudoalcippe Bannerman, Bull. Brit. Orn. Cl. xliv, p. 26, 1923. Type by original designation, Turdinus atriceps Sharpe." (W. Sclater, 1930, Syst. Av. Aethiop., II, p. 363).
