Creamy-rumped Miner

SCI Name:  Geositta isabellina
Protonym:  Certhilauda isabellina An.Univ.Chile 25 p.412
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Furnariidae / Geositta
Taxonomy Code:  crrmin1
Type Locality:  Cordilleras of Province of Santiago, Valle Largo and Los Piuquenes at elevations of 7000 to 10,000 feet.
Author:  Philippi & Landbeck
Publish Year:  1864
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

GEOSITTA
(Furnariidae; † Common Miner G. cunicularia fissirostris) Gr. γεω- geō-  ground-, earth-  < γη gē  earth; genus Sitta Linnaeus, 1758, nuthatch; the terrestrial Common Miner was classified with the nuthatches, subfamily Sittinae, by Swainson 1837, because of its straight bill, short tail, and long hind-toe with a curved, lengthened claw; "GEOSITTA, Sw.  (fig. 283.)   Bill longer than the head, trigonal at the base, cylindrical beyond. Culmen rounded. The tip of the upper mandible entire, broader than high, and slightly bent over the lower. Wings long, pointed; the first quill nearly equal to the second and third, which are longest; tertials lengthened. Tail slightly forked. Feet slender. Anterior toes rather short; the lateral ones unequal, the claws small; hind toe as long as the middle toe, but shorter than the tarsus; the claw much lengthened, and slightly curved.  Chili.   G. anthoïdes.  Part 5. No. 129." (Swainson 1837 (Classif. Birds)); "129. GEOSITTA anthoïdes.  ...  Inhabits Chili." (Swainson 1837 (Anim. Menag.)); "Geositta SWAINSON, Classif. Birds, 2, p. 317, 1837— generic characters only; type by subs. desig. (SWAINSON, Anim. Menag., p. 323, Dec. 1837) Geositta anthoides SWAINSON = Alauda fissirostris KITTLITZ." (Hellmayr, 1925, Cat. Birds Americas, Pt. IV, 2); "Geositta Swainson, Classif. Bds., 2, 1837, p. 317, fig. 283.  Type, by monotypy, Geositta anthoides, Part 5, No. 129 = Alauda fissirostris Kittlitz." (Peters, 1951, VII, p. 58).  Fjeldså, Christidis & Ericson (eds.) 2020, treat this genus, together with Sclerurus, in the family Scleruridae.
Var. Geocitta.
Synon. Geobamon, Geobates.

isabellina / isabellinus
Mod. L. isabellinus  isabelline-coloured, greyish-yellow  < French  Isabelle  < Spanish  Isabella. The origin of the colour term ‘isabelline’ is now unknown. The most likely candidate is Isabel I Queen of Castile and Spain (reigned 1474-1504), said to have promised not to change her undergarments until Spain was freed from the Moors (Granada, the last Moorish ta’ifa, fell in 1492). In 1600, a gown of isabella colour is referred to in an inventory of the wardrobe of Elizabeth I Queen of England (Macleod 1954). The link with the Archduchess Isabella, daughter of Philip II of Spain, who vowed not to change her linen until Ostend (beseiged 1601-1604) was taken, is discounted by SOED 1944 (cf. "I came across an alternative explanation, that the word 'isabelline' is actually a corruption of the Italian word zibellino. This name was given to a pelt of an animal such as a marten or Sable, worn by wealthy women during the 16th century. It may originally derive from an Arabic word meaning 'lion' and therefore mean 'lion-coloured'" (Stephen Moss 2017, Birdwatch, 299, 77)). 
● ex “Isabelle” of Levaillant 1802 (syn. Acrocephalus baeticatus).
● ex “Emerillon de Cayenne” of de Buffon 1770-1783 (subsp. Falco sparverius).