Spiny-faced Antshrike

SCI Name:  Xenornis setifrons
Protonym:  Xenornis setifrons Am.Mus.Novit. no.123 p.1
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Thamnophilidae / Xenornis
Taxonomy Code:  spfant1
Type Locality:  Tacarcuna, 2050 feet, eastern Panama.
Author:  Chapman
Publish Year:  1924
IUCN Status:  Near Threatened

DEFINITIONS

XENORNIS
(Thamnophilidae; Ϯ Spiny-faced Antshrike X. setifrons) Gr. ξενος xenos  stranger; ορνις ornis, ορνιθος ornithos  bird; "XENORNIS, new genus   GENERIC DIAGNOSIS.—A formicarian bird, possibly a member of the thamnophiline group but without close resemblance to any known species. Bill somewhat as in Erionotus punctatus but more compressed laterally; wing more rounded, the flight feathers more incurved; tail of ten feathers more graduate.   ...   TYPE.— Xenornis setifrons, new species.   ...   Of this bird we have but a single specimen, the relationships of which have long puzzled the members of our department of birds.   ...  While I have suggested the relationships of this species with the thamnophiline group, its incurved wings and loosely barbed rectrices indicate a bird of less active, vigorous habits than most thamnophili.  Possibly it is more closely related to Percnostola, which has incurved wing quills, stiffened frontal feathers, and loosely bared rectrices.  But the tarsi are longer than in Percnostola and the mandible lacks the gonydeal swelling so characteristic of Thamnophilus and its allies and present in Xenornis." (Chapman 1924).

setifrons
L. saeta or seta  bristle; frons, frontis  forehead, brow.