View source for Akalat

{{Short description|Genus of birds}}
{{Automatic Taxobox
| name = Akalats
| image = CalleneTurdinusKeulemans.jpg
| taxon = Sheppardia
| authority = [[Alwin Karl Haagner|Haagner]], 1909
| type_species = ''[[East coast akalat|Sheppardia gunningi]]''<ref name=HM4>{{cite web |url= https://www.aviansystematics.org/4th-edition-checklist?viewfamilies=183 |title= Muscicapidae |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website= aviansystematics.org |publisher= The Trust for Avian Systematics |access-date= 2023-07-15}}</ref>
| type_species_authority = Haagner, 1909
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision = See text. }}
The '''akalats''' ([[Stress (linguistics)|stress]]ed on the second syllable)<ref>As recorded by [[George Latimer Bates|George L. Bates]]</ref> are medium-sized [[Insectivore|insectivorous]] [[bird]]s in the [[genus]] '''''Sheppardia'''''. They were formerly placed in the [[thrush (bird)|thrush]] [[family (biology)|family]], Turdidae, but are more often now treated as part of the [[Old World flycatcher|Old World flycatcher family]], Muscicapidae.
The genus contains 11 [[Sub-Sahara]]n [[forest]]-dwelling [[species]]:<ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | title=Chats, Old World flycatchers | work=World Bird List Version 6.2 | url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/chats/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union| access-date=20 May 2016 }}</ref>
* [[Grey-winged robin-chat]], ''Sheppardia polioptera'' (formerly placed in ''[[Cossypha]]'')
* [[Short-tailed akalat]], ''Sheppardia poensis'' (split from ''S. bocagei'')<ref>{{Cite web|title=Species Updates – IOC World Bird List|url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/updates/species-updates/|access-date=2021-06-18|language=en-US}}</ref>
* [[Bocage's akalat]], ''Sheppardia bocagei''
* [[Lowland akalat]], ''Sheppardia cyornithopsis''
* [[Equatorial akalat]], ''Sheppardia aequatorialis''
* [[Sharpe's akalat]], ''Sheppardia sharpei''<!-- Biological Conservation 87 (1999) 59-72 -->
* [[East coast akalat]], ''Sheppardia gunningi''
* [[Gabela akalat]], ''Sheppardia gabela''
* [[Rubeho akalat]], ''Sheppardia aurantiithorax''
* [[Usambara akalat]], ''Sheppardia montana''
* [[Iringa akalat]], ''Sheppardia lowei''
==Taxonomy and etymology==
The [[genus]] ''Sheppardia'' was introduced in 1909 by the South African ornithologist [[Alwin Karl Haagner]] with the [[East coast akalat]] (''Sheppardia gunningi'') as the [[type species]].<ref name=haager>{{ cite journal | last=Haagner | first=Alwin Karl | author-link=Alwin Karl Haagner | year=1909 | title=Descriptions of two new species of flycatchers from the Portuguese south-east Africa | journal=Annals of the Transvaal Museum | volume=1 | pages=179–180 [180] | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/50470957 }}</ref> The name of the genus was chosen to honour the collector and farmer P. A. Sheppard.<ref name=haager/><ref>{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=355 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Plug|first=C. |title=S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science|url=http://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=2570 |website=S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science |access-date=22 July 2021}}</ref>
[[Richard Bowdler Sharpe]], who had never visited Africa, associated the akalats, in their [[Bulu language|Bulu]] appellation, with birds of "different kinds" occurring in the [[Understory|forest understorey]].<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Sharpe | first = R.B.  | title = On further collections of birds from the Efulen District of Camaroon, West Africa, Part II | journal = Ibis | volume = 46 | issue = 4 | pages = 591–638 | year = 1904 | url =https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/25210942  | doi=10.1111/j.1474-919x.1904.tb00524.x }}</ref> 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 language|Fang]] and Bulu "Akalat"....".<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Sharpe | first = R.B.  | title = On further collections of birds from the Efulen District of Camaroon, West Africa, Part V | journal = Ibis | volume = 46 | issue = 9 | pages = 117–129 [119] | year = 1908 | url =https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8771113  | doi = 10.1111/j.1474-919X.1908.tb05213.x}}</ref> The latter genus denoted a group of [[Old World babbler]]s, currently classed as near-babblers in the genus ''[[Illadopsis]]''.
[[David Armitage 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 ''Trichastoma'', which is ''Illadopsis''. Reichenow however classed ''[[Turdinus batesi]]'' as an ''[[Alethe (genus)|Alethe]]'',<ref>{{Cite book | last = Reichenow | first = A.| title = Die Vögel Afrikas, Vol. 3 | publisher = Neudamm: J. Neumann | year = 1905 }}</ref> then in the ''[[Turdidae]]'' (thrushes and flycatchers), followed by Jackson and Sclater in 1938 who applied it to ''Sheppardia'' specifically.<ref>{{Cite book | last =  Jackson | first = F.J. & Sclater W.L. | title = The birds of Kenya Colony and the Uganda Protectorate, Vol. 2 | publisher = London: Gurney & Jackson | year = 1938 }}</ref> 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. ''[[Illadopsis]]'' near-babblers in West Africa, and the ''Sheppardia'' chats in East African literature,<ref>A New Dictionary of Birds, ed. Sir A. Landsborough Thomson (London, Nelson, 1964)</ref> 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 [[Beti-Pahuin peoples|Bulu]] and [[Beti-Pahuin peoples|Ntumu]] peoples, is believed by them to predict the death of a near parent who bids them farewell with this song.<ref>{{Citation |last=Culture Vive |title=Phénomène des Présages Chez les Fang/Beti, under Beti-Fang-Bulu |url=http://bonneculture.com/betifang/presages.htm |access-date=4 July 2017 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}: 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.</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
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[[Category:Sheppardia| ]]
[[Category:Bird genera]]
[[Category:Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa]]