----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Fiona Reid <darfreid@hotmail.com>
To: ian.fisher@rspb.org.uk; itaisha1@yahoo.com; fleur ngweno <fleur@africaonline.co.ke>
Sent: Sunday, 18 October, 2009 6:54:25
Subject: Fw: Ruvu Weaver

interesting from Don Turner......
Fiona

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From: "MARGARET & DON TURNER" <mat@wananchi.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 10:40 AM
To: <darfreid@hotmail.com>
Cc: <tzbirdatlas@yahoo.com>
Subject: Ruvu Weaver

> Dear Fiona;  Your very poignant account of what has happened to one of your favourite birding areas is sadly all to common here in Kenya, and it is doubly distressing to see it happening in Tanzania too.
>
> Weavers from the Ruvu River area near Bagamoyo have aroused attention ever since the 1890's, but with nothing being taken seriously they have always been lumped in with African Golden Weavers.
>
> It all started with an adult male collected by Bohndorf either late 1889 or early 1890, and described by Hartlaub in 1891 as Ploceus holoxanthus .  Hartlaub clearly felt it was different to both African Golden and Golden Palm. He described the iris as "obscure fusca > brownish"  as opposed to either fusca or nigricante, and the bill as "nigricante > black".
>
> Bohndorf's specimen clearly aroused considerable interest at the time, and was compared with other material in the Bremen Museum, most notably with the specimens of African Golden. Hartlaub commented that Prof Reichenow (the then Guru of African ornithology) was also of the opinion that it was a new species being noticeably different from both the African Golden and Golden Palm specimens in Bremen at the time.  Clearly the bright yellow plumage of the Bohndorf specimen was considered significant. Hartlaub further commented that the olive green colouring in the upperparts of African Golden was much less apparent in this new bird. He also remarked on the brown/gold colour of the head as being distinctive.  Bohndorf's bird was clearly the brightest yellow of all the weavers in the Bremen collection at the time.
>
> Shelley (then head of the BM) was also shown the Bohndorf specimen but was NOT convinced, and later in his Systema of African Birds he lumped holoxanthus in with African Golden, where it has remained ever since.  Clearly someone needs to have a much closer look at the Ruvu birds and DNA samples need to be looked at in comparison with material from both African Golden and Golden Palm weavers. Someone in Copenhagen is looking at weavers, but whether they have any material from the Ruvu I'm not sure, but surely now is the time to get some and solve this issue once and for all.
>
> Thank you again for sharing this with everyone, I hope in time it is all resolved one way or another.
>
> With very best wishes
> Don Turner
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>
>