Isabelline Bush-hen

SCI Name:  Amaurornis isabellina
Protonym:  Rallina isabellina Mus.Hist.Pays-BasRev.Meth.Crit.Coll. livr.7 Ralli no.30 p.16
Taxonomy:  Gruiformes / Rallidae / Amaurornis
Taxonomy Code:  isabuh1
Type Locality:  Gorontalo, Celebes.
Author:  Schlegel
Publish Year:  1865
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

AMAURORNIS
(Rallidae; † Philippine Bush-hen A. olivacea) Gr. αμαυρος amauros  dark; ορνις ornis, ορνιθος ornithos  bird; "Genera et Species typicae.  ...  *Amaurornis Rchb.  olivacea (Gallin. — Meyen). Ic. Av. t. 192. ic. 1112—13." (Reichenbach 1853); "Amaurornis Reichenbach, Nat. Syst. Vög. p. xxi, 1852 (1853).  Type (by original designation): Gallinula olivacea Meyen." (Mathews, 1927, Syst. Av. Austral., I, p. 95). 
Var. Amaurormis.   
Synon. Aenigmatolimnas, Erythra, Oenolimnas, Pisynolimnas.

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).