Blackish-breasted Babbler

SCI Name:  Stachyris humei
Protonym:  Heterorhynchus Humei Str.Feath. 1 p.415
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Timaliidae / Stachyris
Taxonomy Code:  wbwbab1
Type Locality:  Sikkim.
Author:  Mandelli
Publish Year:  1873
IUCN Status:  Near Threatened

DEFINITIONS

STACHYRIS
(Timaliidae; Ϯ Grey-throated Babbler S. nigriceps) Gr. στραχυ strakhu  rough, distort  < τραχυς trakhus  rough, jagged; ῥις rhis, ῥινος rhinos nostrils; "Timaliæ  ...  Stachyris, Hodgson.  ...  1. St. nigriceps, Hodgson.  ...  2. St. pyrrhops, Hodgson.  ...  3. St. chrysæa, Hodgson.  ...  Mr. Hodgson sends the following diagnostics  ...  "Stachyris, Mihi. (Certhianæ? Leiotrichanæ? Parianæ? [I do not hesitate to place it as above.—E. B.]  Bill equal to head, very strong, pointed, and trenchant; tips equal and entire; its form conico-compressed and higher than broad, with culmen raised between prolonged nareal fossæ.  Nares basal, lateral, with ovoid posteal aperture, the front being closed by the very salient rude scale above.  Gape smooth.  Frontlet rigid.  Tongue cartilaginous, bifid, simple.  Legs and feet very strong, suited to creeping and climbing in inverted strained positions.  Tarse very stout, longer than any toe or nail.  Toes short, unequal, depressed, basally connected, the hind stoutest and exceeding the inner fore.  Nails very falcate and acute.  Wings short, feeble, the first four primaries much graduated, the four next subequal.  Tail medial, simple, firm.   Type St. nigriceps.  Sylvan, shy; creeps among foliage, buds and flowers, like Zosterops and Orthotomus; feeds on minute hard insects and their eggs and larvæ." (Hodgson 1844).
Var. Stachyrhis, Strachyrhis, Strachyris.
Synon. Cilathora, Heterorhynchus, Nigravis, Sphenocichla, Stachyrirhynchus, Thringorhina.

humei
Allan Octavian Hume (1829-1912) English civil servant in India 1850-1894, ornithologist, collector, founder of journal ‘Stray Feathers’ (subsp. Aegithina tiphia, syn. Alectoris chukar pallescens, subsp. Artamus leucoryn, syn. Dendrocopos macei, subsp. Micropternus brachyurus, syn. Napothera epilepidota granti, syn. Periparus ater aemodius, Phylloscopus, Stachyris).