Systematic notes on Asian birds. 34. A preliminary review of the Aegithinidae

Hypotheses of iora phylogeny are reviewed up to date, and the history of the generic name investigated. Interactions between A. nigrolutea and A. tiphia are examined and reasons presented for treating them as separate species. The allowability of a widely disjunct distribution in subspecies A. tiphia deignani Hall, 1957 is queried, and its range narrowed substantially, forcing a re-designation of Indian popula- tions. Additional, small systematic and distributional issues bearing on other Aegithina species are noticed. This paper continues a series preparing the way for a 'Synopsis of the Birds of Asia' (see Introduction to 'Systematic notes on Asian birds': Dickinson & Dekker, 2000). It covers the four species of the family Aegithinidae (ioras), comparing their treatment by Delacour (1960) in Peters's Check-list of Birds of the World with more recent findings. Proposed amendments happen to be few here but maintain the series policy of presenting arguments and verifiable evidence for change, as appropriate from case to case. Summary dictionary entries by Delacour (1964) and Wells (1985) carried no directly systematic content, and no part of the family has been monographed since Marien (1952) and Hall (1957) analysed geographical variation in A. tiphia (Linnaeus, 1758) and the latter's interaction with the S Asian taxon nigrolutea Marshall, 1876. These studies dictated Delacour's treatments in the Check-list and have not been superceded. Additional subspecies of A. tiphia claimed for the Sunda region (Hoogerwerf, 1962; Prescott, 1970) left the established distributional pattern undisturbed, and adjust- ments of range in the Indian subcontinent proposed by Abdulali (1981) were founded on relatively small samples. Abdulali emphasised the general difficulty of placing individual A. tiphia specimens at subspecies level and, important in terms of a recom- mendation made here, states that Indian A. t. deignani Hall, 1957, 'is a very difficult race to separate'. More recently, preparation by DRW of family text for an upcoming volume of the Handbook of the Birds of the World alerted us to the possibility of fresh interpretations of existing data. Proposed amendments affecting A. tiphia and the A.

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