Gray-bellied Tesia

SCI Name:  Tesia cyaniventer
Protonym:  Tesia cyaniventer J.Asiat.Soc.Bengal 6 p.101
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Scotocercidae / Tesia
Taxonomy Code:  gybtes1
Type Locality:  Nepal.
Author:  Hodgson
Publish Year:  1837
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

TESIA
(Scotocercidae; Ϯ Grey-bellied Tesia T. cyaniventer) Nepalese name Tisi for the Grey-bellied Tesia; "Aipunemia? Tesia, nobis; Tee-see of the Nipalese.   Bill shorter than the head, straight, and with the nares* perfectly Cincline. Wings very feeble, and quite round. Tail nearly obsolete. Rictus and capistrum smooth. Tarsi very high, slender, and quite smooth. Toes and nails meruline, slender, and compressed.   1st Species. Cyaniventer; blue-bellied, nobis.  ...  2nd Species.  Flaviventer; yellow-bellied, nobis.  ...  3rd Species. Albiventer, nobis.  ...  4th Species. Rufiventer, nobis.  ...  These little birds have a very strong muscular stomach, and feed on hard grass seeds and hard minute insects. They procure their food entirely on the ground, and live in woods exclusively.  ...   *In Aipunemia the covering of the nares is corneous: in Tesia, it is pure membrane. In the former, again, the tarsal scales are apparent; whilst in Tesia there is no trace of them" (Hodgson 1837); "Tesia Hodgson, 1837, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 6, p. 101. Type, by subsequent designation (G. R. Gray, 1840, List Gen. Birds, p. 27), T. cyaniventris Hodgson = Tesia cyaniventer Hodgson." (Watson in Peters 1986, XI, 5).
Var. Sesia.
Synon. Anura, Microcercus, Pseudoxenicus.

cyaniventer / cyaniventris
L. cyaneus  dark-blue  < Gr. κυανεος kuaneos  dark-blue, glossy; venter, ventris  belly.