Leaflitter babbler

Leaflitter babbler
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Pellorneidae
Genus:	Pellorneum
Species:	P. poliogene
Binomial name
Pellorneum poliogene (Strickland, 1849)

Illustration of the leaflitter babbler from: Strickland, H.E., 1849. Notes on several species of birds from Malacca. Contributions to Ornithology for 1848-1853. Edinburgh: W.H. Lizars. Plate 31

The leaflitter babbler (Pellorneum poliogene) is a species of bird in the ground babbler family Pellorneidae that is found in northern and central Borneo. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the short-tailed babbler, now renamed the mourning babbler (Pellorneum malaccense).

Taxonomy

The leaflitter babbler was formally described in 1849 by the English naturalist Hugh Edwin Strickland based on a specimen collected in Borneo. He placed it with the shortwings in the genus Brachypteryx and coined the binomial name Brachypteryx poliogenis. ^{[1] [2]} The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek polios meaning "grey" and genus meaning "cheek". ^[3] The leaflitter babbler is now placed in the genus Pellorneum that was introduced in 1832 by the English naturalist William Swainson. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the short-tailed babbler (renamed the mourning babbler) (Pellorneum malaccense) but based on vocal and genetic differences it is now treated as a separate species and is considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. ^{[4] [5]}

References

1. Strickland, Hugh Edwin (1849). "Notes on several species of birds from Malacca". Contributions to Ornithology for 1848-1853. Edinburgh: W.H. Lizars. p. "93-21", Plate 31.
2. Mayr, Ernst; Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, eds. (1964). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 251.
3. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 312. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
4. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (December 2023). "Babblers, scimitar babblers, ground babblers, Alcippe fulvettas". IOC World Bird List Version 14.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
5. Garg, K.M.; Chattopadhyay, B.; Cros, E.; Tomassi, S.; Benedick, S.; Edwards, D.P.; Rheindt, F.E. (2022). "Island biogeography revisited: museomics reveals affinities of Shelf Island birds determined by bathymetry and paleo-rivers, not by distance to mainland". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 39 (1) msab340. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msab340 . PMC   8789277 . PMID   34893875.