Brown-backed Honeyeater

SCI Name:  Ramsayornis modestus
Protonym:  Glyciphila modesta Proc.Zool.Soc.London Pt26 no.357 p.174
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Meliphagidae / Ramsayornis
Taxonomy Code:  brbhon1
Type Locality:  Aru Islands.
Author:  Gray, GR
Publish Year:  1858
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

RAMSAYORNIS
(Meliphagidae; Ϯ Brown-backed Honeyeater R. modestus) Dr Edward Pierson Ramsay (1842-1916) Australian zoologist, Curator of Australian Mus., Sydney 1874-1894 (cf. subsp. name Gliciphila modesta ramsayi Mathews 1912 (= syn. Ramsayornis modestus)); Gr. ορνις ornis, ορνιθος ornithos bird; "1,187. RAMSAYORNIS, gen. nov.  Differs from Gliciphila in its shorter but comparatively stouter bill, with weaker legs and feet; the wing is shorter and the tail comparatively much shorter, while the first and second primaries are proportionately shorter.  Type, Gliciphila subfasciata Ramsay." (Mathews 1912); "Ramsayornis Mathews, 1912, Austral Avian Rec., 1, p. 115. Type, by original designation, Gliciphila subfasciata Ramsay = Glyciphila modesta G. R. Gray." (Salomonsen in Peters 1967, XII, 431).
Synon. Ryanornis.

modesta / modestum / modestus
L. modestus  plain, modest, unassuming  < modus  measure, standard.