Wrentit

SCI Name:  Chamaea fasciata
Protonym:  Parus fasciatus Proc.Acad.Nat.Sci.Philadelphia 2 p.265
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Sylviidae / Chamaea
Taxonomy Code:  wrenti
Type Locality:  California; restricted to Monterey, Monterey County, by Grinnell, 1932, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 38, p. 291.
Author:  Gambel
Publish Year:  1845
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

CHAMAEA
(Sylviidae; Ϯ Wrentit C. fasciata) Gr. χαμαι khamai  on the ground; "Genus* CHAMÆA.†  Bill short, tapering to the point, acute and compressed.  Both mandibles entire, ridge of upper elevated, and curving nearly from the base; the depression for the nostrils large, oval, and exposed; the nostrils opening beneath a membrane in the depression.  Wings very short and much rounded.  Tail very long and graduated.  Tarsus long.  Chamæa fasciata, Nobis.  Ground Tit.  Parus fasciatus, nobis, Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sc., vol. 2, p. 265.   This interesting bird, placed provisionally among the Titmice, I have now made the type of a new genus, not being able, as yet, to find a suitable place for it, among those already described.  For several months before discovering the bird, I chased among the fields of dead mustard stalks, the weedy margins of streams, low thickets and bushy places, a continued, loud, crepitant, grating scold, which I took for some species of wren, but at last found to proceed from this Wren-Tit, if it might be so called. It is always difficult to be seen, and keeps in such places as I have described, close to the ground; eluding pursuit, by diving into the thickest bunches of weeds and tall grass, or tangled bushes, uttering its grating wren-like note whenever an approach is made towards it.   ...   † From χαμαι, on the ground." (Gambel 1847); "Chamæa Gambel, 1847, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 3: 154.  Type, by original designation, Parus fasciatus Gambel." (AOU Checklist, 7th ed., 1998, p. 514).

fasciata
Late L. fasciatus  banded  < L. fascia  band, stripe.
● ex “Fasciated Grosbeak” of Brown 1776, and Latham 1783 (Amadina).
● ex “Hirondelle à bande blanche sur le ventre de Cayenne” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 724, fig. 2, “Hirondelle à ceinture blanche” of de Buffon 1770-1783, and “White-bellied Swallow” of Latham 1783 (Atticora).
● ex “Fasciated Finch” of Pennant 1785 (syn. Melospiza melodia).
● ex “Ynambúi” of de Azara 1802-1805, no. 327 (syn. Nothura maculosa).
● ex “Bracelet Parrakeet from East India” of Albin 1731 (subsp. Psittacula alexandri).

SUBSPECIES

Wrentit (phaea)
SCI Name: Chamaea fasciata phaea
phaea
Gr. φαιος phaios  grey, dark.

Wrentit (margra)
SCI Name: Chamaea fasciata margra
margra
“The name margra is a combination of Marvin and Grace (Browning), my parents, who made it possible for me to name the subspecies” (Browning 1992) (subsp. Chamaea fasciata).

Wrentit (rufula)
SCI Name: Chamaea fasciata rufula
rufula
L. rufulus reddish < rufus rufous.

Wrentit (fasciata)
SCI Name: Chamaea fasciata fasciata
fasciata
Late L. fasciatus  banded  < L. fascia  band, stripe.
● ex “Fasciated Grosbeak” of Brown 1776, and Latham 1783 (Amadina).
● ex “Hirondelle à bande blanche sur le ventre de Cayenne” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 724, fig. 2, “Hirondelle à ceinture blanche” of de Buffon 1770-1783, and “White-bellied Swallow” of Latham 1783 (Atticora).
● ex “Fasciated Finch” of Pennant 1785 (syn. Melospiza melodia).
● ex “Ynambúi” of de Azara 1802-1805, no. 327 (syn. Nothura maculosa).
● ex “Bracelet Parrakeet from East India” of Albin 1731 (subsp. Psittacula alexandri).

Wrentit (henshawi)
SCI Name: Chamaea fasciata henshawi
henshawi
Henry Wetherbee Henshaw (1850-1930) US ornithologist, ethnologist, collector, resident in Hawaii 1894-1904, Assistant/Chief of US Biological Survey 1905-1916 (syn. Accipiter gentilis atricapillus, subsp. Chamaea fasciata, syn. Junco hyemalis cismontanus, syn. Selasphorus rufus).