Sri Lanka Bush Warbler

SCI Name:  Elaphrornis palliseri
Protonym:  Brachypteryx? palliseri J.Asiat.Soc.Bengal 20 p.178
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Locustellidae / Elaphrornis
Taxonomy Code:  ceybuw1
Type Locality:  Ceylon.
Author:  Blyth
Publish Year:  1851
IUCN Status:  Near Threatened

DEFINITIONS

ELAPHRORNIS
(Locustellidae; Ϯ Sri Lanka Warbler E. palliseri) Gr. ελαφρος elaphros  active, nimble; ορνις ornis, ορνιθος ornithos  bird; "Genus ELAPHRORNIS*.   Bill straight, compressed, rather slender; culmen straight at the base, the tip notched.  Nostrils oblong and oblique; rictal bristles feeble.  Wings short and rounded, the 5th, 6th, and 7th quills subequal and longest, the 1st about half their length.  Tail exceeding the wing by the length of the hind toe, of 12 feathers, lax and graduated.  Tarsus longer than the middle toe and its claw, and covered with long obsolete scales; anterior toes slender, the hallux stout.  Plumage lax and soft; the feathers of the back much lengthened.  Nape furnished with abnormal hair-like feathers.    ELAPHRORNIS PALLISERI. (PALLISER'S ANT-THRUSH.) (Peculiar to Ceylon.)  ...  *From ελαφρος, nimble, active  ... This curious bird is quite a Timaline species, both as regards its habits and its external structure. Its wings and legs are essentially those of the present family [Timaliidae], and the texture of its plumage is not unlike that of Pomatorhinus, although it is considerably more lax. It has, however, its abnormal characteristics, such as its slender bill and its highly developed nuchal hair-like plumes, which ally it to the Drymœcinæ.   ...  Notwithstanding, it seem to me to take a better station among the Babblers, to which its active habits, wing- and tail-structure ally it, than among the Wren-Warblers; and I accordingly place it at the end of the Timaliinæ.   ...   I have accordingly founded for its reception the genus Elaphrornis, which title I conceive to be not inappropriate, owing to its active manners." (Legge 1879); "Elaphrornis Legge, 1879, Birds Ceylon, p. 514. Type, by monotypy, Bradypteryx palliseri Blyth." (Watson in Peters, 1986, XI, p. 17).  
Var. Elaphornis.

palliseri
Maj. Edward Mathew Palliser (1828-1907) British Army, and his brother Frederick Hugh Palliser (1826-1883) collectors in Ceylon / Sri Lanka 1845-1851 (Elaphrornis).