Chalk-browed Mockingbird

SCI Name:  Mimus saturninus
Protonym:  Turdus saturninus Verz.Doubl.Zool.Mus.Berlin p.39
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Mimidae / Mimus
Taxonomy Code:  chbmoc1
Type Locality:  Para = Rio Tapajoz, Para, Brazil.
Author:  Lichtenstein, MHC
Publish Year:  1823
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

MIMUS
(Mimidae; Ϯ Northern Mockingbird M. polyglottos) L. mimus  mimic  < Gr. μιμος mimos  mimic; "Hernandez justly calls it the queen of all singing birds. The Indians, by way of eminence or admiration, call it cencontlatolly, or four hundred tongues; and we call it (though not by so elevated a name, yet very properly) the mock-bird, from its wonderful mocking and imitating the notes of all birds, from the humming-bird to the eagle" (Catesby 1731); "LE GRAND MOQUEUR ...  MIMUS MAJOR ...  il chante très-bien, & imite parfaitement le chant de tous les Oiseaux" (Brisson 1760): based on "Mimus" of Charleton 1668, "Mock-bird" of Catesby 1731, and other references; "Mimus Briss.  Turdus polyglottus Lin. enl. 645. u.v.a." (Boie 1826); "Mimus Boie, 1826, Isis von Oken, p. 972. Type, by monotypy, Turdus polyglottos Linnaeus." (Davis & Miller in Peters 1960, IX, 442).
Var. Mimetes, Minus, Memus, Nemus.
Synon. Leucomimus, Mimodes, Nesomimus, Orpheus, Skotiomimus.

mimus
L. mimus  mimic  < Gr. μιμος mimos  mimic.

saturninus
Med. L. saturninus saturnine, gloomy, leaden (in alchemy the Roman god Saturn was identified with lead and associated with slowness and gloom by astrologers).

SUBSPECIES

Chalk-browed Mockingbird (saturninus)
SCI Name: Mimus saturninus saturninus
saturninus
Med. L. saturninus saturnine, gloomy, leaden (in alchemy the Roman god Saturn was identified with lead and associated with slowness and gloom by astrologers).

Chalk-browed Mockingbird (arenaceus)
SCI Name: Mimus saturninus arenaceus
arenacea / arenaceus
L. arenaceus  sandy  < arena (properly harena)  sand.

Chalk-browed Mockingbird (frater)
SCI Name: Mimus saturninus frater
frater
L. frater  brother (i.e. closely related).
● "CRINIGER FRATER, sp. n.  ♂ ad. affinis C. gutturali, sed pectore ochrascenti-flavo et subcaudalibus ochrascentibus distinguendus ... This new species is very closely allied to two others, viz. C. gutturalis and C. gularis, all of them having brown heads and olive-green backs" (Sharpe 1877) (Alophoixus).
● "The difference in color appears very slight.  I attach more importance to the discrepancies in size and proportions.  If the Pacific bird be really distinct from the American, it has probably yet to receive a name; for it is very different from the various species of Anous mostly described by Mr. Gould.  In that event, it may be called a ANOUS FRATER." (Coues 1862) (syn. Anous stolidus pileatus).
● "Schließt als dritte Form an C. rufopileata und soror sich an.  ...  Durch die allerdings nur undeutliche Fleckung des Rückens nähert sich die Art der C. chiniana." (Reichenow 1916) (subsp. Cisticola chiniana). 
● "Species H. rufo-marginato maxime affinis, sed interscapulio non nigro et remigum colore castaneo saturatiore satis diversa" (P. Sclater & Salvin 1880) (subsp. Herpsilochmus scapularis).
● “Species assimilis M. carinatae [= Monarcha melanopsis] ex Australia et ejusdem formae, sed facie angustiore nigra et ventre saturatiore castaneo diversa” (P. Sclater, 1874) (Monarcha).
● “The occurrence of two typical species of Amydrus [i.e. Onychognathus frater and Onychognathus blythii] in so small an island as Socotra is very curious; but there seems to be no doubt about the fact” (P. Sclater & Hartlaub, 1881) (Onychognathus).
● "Similar to T. solstitialis, but differs in the eyebrow and eyelid being white instead of rufous or buff, and in the whiter axillaries and under wing-coverts.  ... The White-browed House-Wren replaces the foregoing species [T. solstitialis] in Bolivia" (Sharpe 1881) (subsp. Troglodytes solstitialis).

Chalk-browed Mockingbird (modulator)
SCI Name: Mimus saturninus modulator
modulator
L. modulator, modulatoris  musician  < modulari  to play an instrument, to accompany.
● ex “Calandria” of de Azara 1802-1805, no. 223 (subsp. Mimus saturninus).