Authority
editThe authority for the family Artamidae is listed in the article as C. G. Sibley & J. A. Ahlquist, 1990. This is obviously nonsense as Artamidae with the type genus Artamus was in use in the 19th century - for example:
- Wallace, Alfred R. (1874). "On the arrangement of families constituting the order Passeres". Ibis. 3rd series. 4: 406-416 [412].
- also: Sharpe Catalogue of Birds British Museum 1890 vol.13 p. 2 here
My standard source for bird families is a long article by Walter Bock published in 1994:
- Bock, Walter J. (1994). History and Nomenclature of Avian Family-Group Names. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. Vol. Number 222. New York: American Museum of Natural History.
{{cite book}}:|volume=has extra text (help) The large pdf file (48MB) can be downloaded from the museum.
Bock cites Vigors 1825a as the authority for Artamidae (p. 158) with Artamus Vieillot, 1816 as the type genus. On page 264 Bock gives the reference as Trans. Linn. Soc. London 14: 395-517. which is available from BHL here. I cannot find Artamidae in Vigors' article. On page 436 Vigors mentions the genus Artamus is in his family Laniadae. This is more obvious in Vigors' slightly later publication in Zool. J. on page 394 here. I'm disappointed as I had assumed that Bock was entirely trustworthy. I've removed the wrong authority from the wiki article leaving the authority field blank. -Aa77zz (talk) 17:41, 30 December 2016 (UTC)
Roadkill
editSo what exactly is the reason for the roadkill picture? It seems unnecessary, there are generally no images of bird carcasses on articles about other birds. Acolossus | Talk | Contributions 15:57, 5 June 2018 (UTC)
Intelligence?
editIs nothing in this article going to be mentioned regarding the family's intelligence? Magpies and Currawongs are very smart, to the point which they're mistaken for Corvids 159.196.53.46 (talk) 18:17, 4 December 2022 (UTC)