Goldenface

SCI Name:  Pachycare flavogriseum
Protonym:  Pachycephala flavogrisea Sitz.K.Akad.Wiss.Wien 69 p.495
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Acanthizidae / Pachycare
Taxonomy Code:  dwawhi1
Type Locality:  Arfak Mountains, northwestern New Guinea.
Author:  Meyer, AB
Publish Year:  1874
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

PACHYCARE
(Acanthizidae; Ϯ Goldenface P. flavogriseum) Gr. παχυς pakhus  large, thick; καρη karē  head  < καρα kara, καρατος karatos  head; "PACHYCARE FLAVO-GRISEA.  Yellow-and-grey Thickhead.   ...   In describing this bird as a Pachycephala Dr. Meyer seems to have had an idea that the species was by no means a typical one; and I need hardly do more than draw the attention of my readers to the bird figured in the opposite Plate to illustrate the very aberrant style of plumage exhibited by it as compared with the usual black and yellow or green dress of an ordinary Pachycephala.  In point of fact, not only the plumage, but the form of the bird differs so strikingly that I feel compelled to institute a new generic title for its reception.  In the olden days, when the quinary system had sway, we should doubtless have been told that the present species represented the Sittidæ, or Nuthatches, among the Shrikes, if, indeed, the Pachycephaline birds are to be accounted as belonging to the great group of the Laniidæ.  Their position is not well ascertained; and by some ornithologists they are considered to belong to the Ampelidæ, while Mr. D. G. Elliot raised them at one time to the rank of a family (Pachycephalidæ).  ...  This is by no means a typical Pachycephala, and must receive an appellation as a new genus (PACHYCARE), in which the following characters must be noted:— Plumage lax. Bill stout, with a distinct notch and overhanging tip on the upper mandible; vibrissæ absent.  Wing rounded and feeble; first primary short, the fourth the longest. Tail short and rounded. Tarsi moderately long, exceeding the length of the bill, rather slight, as are the toes." (Gould 1876); "Pachycare Gould, 1876, Birds New Guinea, pt. 3, pl. 15. Type, by monotypy, Pachycephala flavogrisea Meyer." (Mayr in Peters 1967, XII, 6).  The Goldenface, a bird of uncertain taxonomic position, was formerly placed with the whistlers or thickheads Pachycephalidae and the pardalotes Pardalotidae.

flavogrisea / flavogriseum / flavogriseus
L. flavus  golden-yellow, yellow; Med. L. griseum  grey.

SUBSPECIES

Goldenface (flavogriseum)
SCI Name: Pachycare flavogriseum flavogriseum
flavogrisea / flavogriseum / flavogriseus
L. flavus  golden-yellow, yellow; Med. L. griseum  grey.

Goldenface (lecroyae)
SCI Name: Pachycare flavogriseum lecroyae
lecroyae / lecroyana
Mary Kathryn LeCroy née Strother (b. 1935) US ornithologist (subsp. Amblyornis macgregoriae, subsp. Edolisoma mindanense, syn. Euphonia xanthogaster badissima, subsp. Pachycare flavogriseum, subsp. Pachycephalopsis hattamensis).

Goldenface (subaurantium)
SCI Name: Pachycare flavogriseum subaurantium
subaurantia / subaurantium
L. sub  underneath, somewhat; Late Med. L. aurantius  orange-coloured (cf. L. subauratus  slightly gilt).

Goldenface (randi)
SCI Name: Pachycare flavogriseum randi
randi
Dr Austin Loomer Rand (1905-1982) Canadian ornithologist, Curator at Field Mus., Chicago 1947-1970 (subsp. Arachnothera flammifera, subsp. Hypotaenidia philippensis, syn. Malurus alboscapulatus aida, Muscicapa, Ninox, subsp. Pachycare flavogriseum, subsp. Saxicola caprata, subsp. Sericornis beccarii).

Goldenface (subpallidum)
SCI Name: Pachycare flavogriseum subpallidum
subpallida / subpallidum / subpallidus
L. suppallidus or subpallidus  somewhat pale, palish  < sub  somewhat; pallidus  pallid, pale  < pallere  to be pale.
● L. sub  near to; specific name Caccabis pallidus Hume, 1873 (= subsp. Alectoris chukar) (subsp. Alectoris chukar).
● L. sub  near to; specific name Micraeca pallida DeVis, 1884 (= subsp. Microeca fascinans) (syn. Microeca fascinans pallida).
● L. sub  near to; specific name Troglodytes pallidus Hume, 1875 (subsp. Troglodytes troglodytes). 
● L. sub  near to; specific name Turdus pallidus J. Gmelin, 1789 (syn. Turdus feae).