Patagonian Mockingbird

SCI Name:  Mimus patagonicus
Protonym:  Or[pheus]. patagonicus Mag.Zool. 7 cl.2 p.19
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Mimidae / Mimus
Taxonomy Code:  patmoc1
Type Locality:  in Patagonia = Rio Negro.
Author:  d''Orbigny & Lafresnaye
Publish Year:  1837
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

MIMUS
(Mimidae; Ϯ Northern Mockingbird M. polyglottos) L. mimus  mimic  < Gr. μιμος mimos  mimic; "Hernandez justly calls it the queen of all singing birds. The Indians, by way of eminence or admiration, call it cencontlatolly, or four hundred tongues; and we call it (though not by so elevated a name, yet very properly) the mock-bird, from its wonderful mocking and imitating the notes of all birds, from the humming-bird to the eagle" (Catesby 1731); "LE GRAND MOQUEUR ...  MIMUS MAJOR ...  il chante très-bien, & imite parfaitement le chant de tous les Oiseaux" (Brisson 1760): based on "Mimus" of Charleton 1668, "Mock-bird" of Catesby 1731, and other references; "Mimus Briss.  Turdus polyglottus Lin. enl. 645. u.v.a." (Boie 1826); "Mimus Boie, 1826, Isis von Oken, p. 972. Type, by monotypy, Turdus polyglottos Linnaeus." (Davis & Miller in Peters 1960, IX, 442).
Var. Mimetes, Minus, Memus, Nemus.
Synon. Leucomimus, Mimodes, Nesomimus, Orpheus, Skotiomimus.

mimus
L. mimus  mimic  < Gr. μιμος mimos  mimic.

patagonica / patagonicus
Patagonia, Argentina. When Magellan wintered on the coast of Patagonia in 1520 he traded with Amerindians, probably the Tehuelche who wore animal skins on their feet, whom he called Patagones big-footed, the name gradually attaching itself to the area.
● Antarctic Sea = South Georgia; ex “Patagonian Pinguin” of Pennant 1768 (Aptenodytes).
● Tierra del Fuego; ex “Patagonian Warbler” of Latham 1783 (Cinclodes).