Delaware Museum of Nature and Science

It has long been assumed (incorrectly) that the house of William Jones at 233 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Alexander Wilson (1766–1813) lived during the production of American ornithology (1808–1814), and where he died, was demolished long ago. Here, it is revealed that the ‘Jones House’ is still standing after 220 years. The house number changed from 233 to 733 Spruce St., c.1860, misleading historians. The history of the house, its relevance to American art and science, and its continued existence, have not been previously discussed.

The name Catharus fumosus Ridgway, 1888 has traditionally been placed among the synonyms of Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush C. mexicanus (Bonaparte, 1856) and applied at subspecies rank to the population ranging from Nicaragua to Panama (C. m. fumosus). Recent data support species rank for C. fumosus, but the availability of the name is contested. Allan Phillips claimed that the C. fumosus holotype (USNM 101765) was a hybrid with ‘C. fuscater’ (= C. [f.] hellmayri von Berlepsch, 1902, recently elevated to species), then re-described the Central American taxon under the name C. m. carrikeri A. R. Phillips, 1991. World checklists are now in conflict. Here, I review the relevant history and compare USNM 101765 to a geographically widespread sample of study skins of the putative parental forms, yielding little support for the hybrid hypothesis. This is the fourth in a series of papers concerning historical aspects of Catharus taxonomy and nomenclature.

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

ABSTRACTHawks, eagles, and their relatives (Accipitriformes: Accipitridae) are a diverse and charismatic clade of modern birds, with many members that are instantly recognized by the general public. However, surprisingly little is known about the relationships among genera within Accipitridae, and several studies have suggested that some genera (in particular, the megadiverse genusAccipiter) are not monophyletic. Here, we combine a new large dataset obtained from Ultraconserved Elements (UCEs), generated from whole genome sequencing (WGS) of 120 species, with publicly available legacy markers (i.e., a suite of commonly sequenced mitochondrial and nuclear genes) to infer a well-supported, time-calibrated phylogeny of 236 extant or recently extinct species. Our densely-sampled phylogeny, which includes 90% of recognized species, confirms the non-monophyly ofAccipiterand provides a sufficient basis to revise the genus-level taxonomy, such that all genera in Accipitridae represent monophyletic groups.

Vampyroteuthis infernalis Chun, 1903, is a widely distributed deepwater cephalopod with unique morphology and phylogenetic position. We assessed its habitat and trophic ecology on a global scale via stable isotope analyses of a unique collection of beaks from 104 specimens from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Cephalopods typically are active predators occupying a high trophic level (TL) and exhibit an ontogenetic increase in δ15N and TL. Our results, presenting the first global comparison for a deep-sea invertebrate, demonstrate that V. infernalis has an ontogenetic decrease in δ15N and TL, coupled with niche broadening. Juveniles are mobile zooplanktivores, while larger Vampyroteuthis are slow-swimming opportunistic consumers and ingest particulate organic matter. Vampyroteuthis infernalis occupies the same TL (3.0–4.3) over its global range and has a unique niche in deep-sea ecosystems. These traits have enabled the success and abundance of this relict species inhabiting the largest ecological realm on the planet.

Like a number of other passerine birds year-old male purple martins, Progne subis, often breed in a ♀-like plumage. We have examined delayed plumage maturation in martins by testing assumptions and predictions derived from two hypotheses advanced to explain their appearance and behavior: the sexual selection hypothesis and the female mimicry hypothesis. First, we examine the success of subadults of different appearance 1) in dominance interactions with adults and with other subadults and 2) at entering colonies with different numbers of adults. Second, we compare the mating success of subadults of different appearance. Finally, we examine predictions from the female mimicry hypothesis concerning the appearance of subadults with regard to geographic variation in colony size and with regard to historical changes in colony size in Eastern North America.