Chevron-breasted Babbler

SCI Name:  Stachyris roberti
Protonym:  Sphenocichla roberti Ibis (3) 5 (18) p. 251
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Timaliidae / Stachyris
Taxonomy Code:  chbbab1
Type Locality:  North Cachar and Manipur Hills.
Author:  Godwin-Austen & Walden
Publish Year:  1875
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.

roberti
• Robert Owen (1838-1880) English engineer, landowner in Guatemala (Paul Scofield in litt.); "Owen's Sabre-wing  ... It was collected in the Vera Paz mountains of Central America by Mr. Robert Owen, after whom it has been named" (Gould 1861) (subsp. Campylopterus cuvierii).
• Robert Ridgway (1850-1929) US ornithologist, Smithsonian Curator of Birds 1880-1929 (syn. Cantorchilus modestus).
• Alphonse Robert (fl. 1903) French botanist, collector in Madagascar 1894-1896, Brazil and Paraguay 1901-1903 (Conopophaga, ‡Hovacrex).
• Maj. Robert Alexander (1873-1928) brother of British explorer Capt. Boyd Alexander (Cossyphicula).
• Robert Hamilton Mathews (1841-1918) Australian surveyor, anthropologist, ethnologist, father of ornithologist Gregory M. Mathews (syn. Cygnus atratus, syn. Zapornia tabuensis).
• Frederick William Robert (fl. 1895) Australian surveyor in Indian Survey Dept. 1875-1895, mountaineer (subsp. Napothera epilepidota, Stachyris).