Slate-colored Solitaire

SCI Name:  Myadestes unicolor
Protonym:  Myiadestes unicolor Proc.Zool.Soc.London(1856) (1856), Pt24 no.319 p.299
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Turdidae / Myadestes
Taxonomy Code:  slcsol1
Type Locality:  Cordova, Veracruz, Mexico.
Author:  Sclater, PL
Publish Year:  1857
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

MYADESTES
(Turdidae; Ϯ Rufous-throated Solitaire M. genibarbis) Gr. μυα mua  fly  < μυια muia, μυιας muias  fly; εδεστης edestēs  eater  < εδω edō  to eat; "MYADESTES; we shall not only characterize this form, but endeavour to demonstrate it as the rasorial type of Rhipidura.  The bill is small, angular, and much depressed towards the base; but the culmen is slightly and gradually bent, and the gonys ascends, in the same degree, towards the point: the rictal bristles are few and short, and do not extend to one-half the length of the bill: the wings are moderate, not reaching beyond the tail-covers; their structure is the same as in all the Old World flycatchers, but the first and second are suddenly narrowed at their tips; a character we have not met with in any other of this family.  The legs, for a flycatcher, are strong, the tarsus moderately lengthened, and the toes considerably developed, much longer, in fact, than either in Rhipidura or Leucocirca.  The middle toe is as long as the tarsus; the inner toe much shorter than the outer, but both are cleft to their base; the hinder and inner toes are equal; the legs are very pale, and the tarsal scale is in one entire piece; the breadth and curvature of the claws, joined to the relative length of the toes, renders it highly probable that this bird does not habitually frequent the ground.  But its great peculiarity lies in the tail, which is moderately lengthened and slightly graduated, having something of the size and form of Leucocirca, excepting that the feathers, instead of being broad, are rather narrow, with the tips acuminated.  Such are the characters of the bird before us.  It is at once distinguished from our sub-genus Muscicapa (as subsequently defined) by its long toes and lengthened graduated bill; and from Leucocirca, by its small slightly bristled bill, and those other indications which unite it to the genuine flycatchers; the whole structure of the bird, particularly in the head, which is thick like that of the robin, is quite opposed to that slenderness of shape so general among its congeners.  Lastly, although not one of the leastof its characteristic marks, is the pure white which ornaments the ends of the three pair of lateral tail-feathers.   ...   WHISKERED FANTAIL.  Myidestes genibarbis, SWAINS.  ...  We are entirely unacquainted with the country it inhabits, and, of course, are equally so regarding its manners. Judging from the formation of its wings, however, we should conclude it was from some part of the warm latitudes of Africa or India   ...   it bears upon its face a flycatcher disguised as a robin." (Swainson 1838); "Myadestes Swainson, 1838, Nat. Libr. Flycatchers, p. 132. Type, by monotypy, Myidestes (sic) genibarbis Swainson." (Ripley in Peters 1964, X, 89).
Var. Myiadectes (Gr. μυια muia, μυιας muias  fly; δεκτης dektēs  receiver  < δεχομαι dekhomai  to receive), Myiadestes, Myiesthes, Myedestes, Myidestes, Myidastes, Myiedestes, Myiodectes.
Synon. Phaeornis.

unicolor
L. unicolor, unicoloris  plain, uniform, of one colour  < uni-  single-  < unus  one; color, coloris  colour.
● ex “Tanagra unicolor” of Lichtenstein MS (Haplospiza).
● ex “Perroquet Lori unicolore” of Levaillant 1801-1805 (unident.).

SUBSPECIES

Slate-colored Solitaire (unicolor)
SCI Name: Myadestes unicolor unicolor
unicolor
L. unicolor, unicoloris  plain, uniform, of one colour  < uni-  single-  < unus  one; color, coloris  colour.
● ex “Tanagra unicolor” of Lichtenstein MS (Haplospiza).
● ex “Perroquet Lori unicolore” of Levaillant 1801-1805 (unident.).

Slate-colored Solitaire (pallens)
SCI Name: Myadestes unicolor pallens
pallens
L. pallens, pallentis  pale-coloured, greenish, yellowish  < pallere  to be pale.