Talk:Edward Burton (zoologist)

Latest comment: 7 years ago by Narky Blert in topic Puzzles for zoologists

Puzzles for zoologists edit

Can anyone identify these genera and species, mentioned in the article?

  1. Pelecanus aquilus Linn.
  2. Ratelus, allegedly "Indian Badger" or Ursus indicus
  3. Pipra squalida. The best I can find is this and this, which suggest that it is a synonym for other deprecated and difficult-to-identify species names. I can't work out if it's Fringilla or Sylvia, and it might be neither.

Narky Blert (talk) 23:19, 19 November 2016 (UTC)Reply

Pelecanus aquilus is Fregata aquila. Ratelus/Ursus indicus is apparently the Indian subspecies of the Honey badger (I'm not finding any solid sourcing for this synonymy though, just going by inference, but I haven't looked very hard). As the sources you found show, Pipra squalida is a synonym of Fringilla agilis, and the current accepted placement of F. agilis is Dicaeum agile. Plantdrew (talk) 17:56, 20 November 2016 (UTC)Reply
@Plantdrew: TYVM!. I've added your info as footnotes. (1) Mellivora ratelus is a junior synonym for the Indian ratel Mellivora capensis indica, so I buy your identification. (2) Pipra made no sense to me at all; at least I was halfway-close with Fringilla; I've changed the text from my guessed-at "finch or warbler" to flowerpecker. Narky Blert (talk) 22:15, 20 November 2016 (UTC)Reply