Comments on the taxonomic status and disappearance of Mimocichla rubripes eremita Ridgway, 1905, with a substitute name, and notes on the type material of M. coryi Sharpe, 1902

Abstract

Summary. A population of the West Indian endemic Red-legged Thrush Turdus plumbeus formerly inhabited the Swan Islands (off northern Honduras), but is apparently extinct, having first and last been seen in 1887. Named Mimocichla rubripes eremita Ridgway, 1905, it fell into the synonymy of T. p. rubripes, found across the western two-thirds of Cuba. A recent check on seven Swan Islands specimens suggests that the validity of their subspecific status might be upheld for their apparently more extensive black throat, but further study is needed. The extinction of the population cannot be explained, but economic activity in the years from the 1850s to 1900s conceivably played a part. Meanwhile, Tristan Thrush Nesocichla eremita Gould, 1855, endemic to the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha, is nowadays also reassigned to Turdus. To resolve the resultant case of secondary homonymy, a substitute name for the Swan Islands population of Turdus plumbeus is offered.