Spotted Elachura

SCI Name:  Elachura formosa
Protonym:  T[roglodytes]. formosus Ibis p.91
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Elachuridae / Elachura
Taxonomy Code:  spwbab1
Type Locality:  
Author:  Walden
Publish Year:  1874
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

ELACHURA
(Elachuridae; Ϯ Spotted Elachura E. formosa) Gr. ελαχυς elakhus  small, short; ουρα oura  tail; "b⁴. Tail very much shorter than the wing.  ...  b⁵. Tail more graduated, the outer feather being only half the length of the tail . . . .ELACHURA, p. 339.   ...   Genus ELACHURA, n. gen.  The Wren which forms the type of this new genus differs conspicuously from Anorthura in having a much stouter bill and a more graduated tail.  The plumage is moreover spotted, not barred. According to Jerdon, it appears that Blyth proposed to separate this bird under the generic name Spiloptera; but this name was preoccupied twice over in Entomology before the date of Jerdon's work and consequently cannot be used for the purpose.  In Elachura the sexes are alike and the young are no doubt similar to the adults in plumage.  The bill is about half the length of the head and stout. The wing is very short and rounded and the first primary is about two thirds the length of the second.  The tail is much graduated, the outer feather reaching only to the middle of the tail, and the tarsus, toes, and claws are long.  The only species known appears to be resident and incapable of any lengthened flight.   353. Elachura punctata.  The Spotted Wren.  ...  The Spotted Wren, Jerd.; Marchok-pho, Lepch." (Oates 1889); "Elachura Oates, 1889, Fauna Brit. India, Birds, 1, pp. 328 (in key), 339. Type, by original designation and monotypy, Troglodytes punctatus Blyth [= Troglodytes formosus Walden]." (Deignan in Peters, 1964, X, p. 296). The unique Spotted Elachura was originally treated as a wren Troglodytidae, and then as a wren babbler within the Pnoepygidae or Timaliidae, but it appears to have no close extant relatives.
Synon. Spiloptera.

formosa
L. formosus  beautiful  < forma  beauty.
● ex “Lovely Finch” of Latham 1787 (Amandava).
● ex “Lindo bello” of de Azara 1802-1805, no. 96 (syn. Tangara chloroptera).