Black-breasted Kite

SCI Name:  Hamirostra melanosternon
Protonym:  Buteo melanosternon Proc.Zool.Soc.London(1840) (1840), Pt8 no.94 p.162
Taxonomy:  Accipitriformes / Accipitridae / Hamirostra
Taxonomy Code:  bkbkit1
Type Locality:  interior of New South Wales.
Author:  Gould
Publish Year:  1841
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

HAMIROSTRA
(Accipitridae; Ϯ Black-breasted Buzzard H. melanosternon) L. hamus  hook; rostrum  beak; despite its buzzard-like proportions, this Australian raptor is considered to be an aberrant and primitive kite; ""GENUS HAMIROSTRA. — Brown.  Bill lengthened, and moderately deep at the base. Culmen gradually bending from the base to the point, which terminates in an acute incurved tip; lateral margins nearly parallel and even, with an almost obsolete festoon towards the point; under mandible narrow, with the gonys slightly bent. Cere very long, covering fully half of the length of the bill, and partially covered with bristled plumes  ...  I have founded this genus on a single species, and it is a medium-sized Eagle. It is a native of New Holland  ...  I have designated it Hamirostra montana. It is called the Broad-Tailed Mountain Eagle by the settlers." This name appears to refer to the Black-breasted Buzzard, Buteo melanosternon Gould, 1840, for which Kaup introduced the genus Gypoictinia in 1847, a year later than Brown's genus name." (Mathews & Iredale 1921); "Hamirostra Brown, Ill. Gen. Bds., pt. 8, 1846, p. 12. Type, by monotypy, Hamirostra montana Brown = Buteo melanosternon Gould." (Peters, 1931, I, p. 204). 
Synon. Gypoictinia.

melanosterna / melanosternon / melanosternus
Gr. μελας melas, μελανος melanos  black; στερνον sternon  breast (cf. μελανστερνος melansternos black-breasted).