The white-throated oxylabes (Oxylabes madagascariensis) is a species of passerine bird that is endemic to Madagascar. It is the only species placed in the genus Oxylabes. Formerly considered as a member of the Old World warbler family Sylviidae, it has been moved to the family Bernieridae — the Malagasy warblers.[2] Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.[1]
Taxonomy
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description and an illustration of the white-throated oxylabes in the third volume of his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected on the island of Madagascar. He used the French name Le rossignol de Madagascar and the Latin name Luscinia madagascariensis.[3] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.[4] When in 1789 the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae he included the white-throated oxylabes based on Brisson's description. He placed it with the wagtails in the genusMotacilla and coined the binomial nameMotacilla madagascariensis.[5] The white-throated oxylabes is now the only species placed in the genus Oxylabes that was introduced in 1870 by the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe.[6][7] The genus name is from Ancient Greekoxulabēs meaning "quick at seizing".[8] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[7]
In 2013, genetic studies determined that the Bluntschli's vanga (also known as short-toed nuthatch-vanga), a species described in 1996 from two specimens collected in 1931, was actually this species. The specimens were both juveniles in a poorly known brown plumage.[9]
Description
The white-throated oxylabes is a large warbler 17–18 cm (6.7–7.1 in) in length. It has short wings, long legs and a long stout bill. The upperparts are dark olive-brown with a rufous top and side of head. It has a narrow white supercilium and a white chin and throat. The underparts are dark brown. The sexes are alike.[10]
^Cibois, Alice; Slikas, Beth; Schulenberg, Thomas S.; Pasquet, Eric (2001). "An endemic radiation of Malagasy songbirds is revealed by mitochondrial DNA sequence data". Evolution. 55 (6): 1198–1206. doi:10.1554/0014-3820(2001)055[1198:AEROMS]2.0.CO;2. PMID11475055.
^Bairlein, F. (2006). "Family Sylviidae (Old World Warblers)". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 11: Old Word flycatchers to Old World Warblers. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions. pp. 492–712 [644]. ISBN978-84-96553-06-4.