Tufted Antshrike

SCI Name:  Mackenziaena severa
Protonym:  Lanius severus Verz.Doubl.Zool.Mus.Berlin p.45,46
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Thamnophilidae / Mackenziaena
Taxonomy Code:  tufant1
Type Locality:  Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Author:  Lichtenstein, MHC
Publish Year:  1823
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

MACKENZIAENA
(Thamnophilidae; Ϯ Large-tailed Antshrike M. leachii) Helen MacKenzie McConnell née Alexander (1871-?1954) wife of English explorer Frederick Vavasour McConnell; L. suffix -ena  relating to;  "MACKENZIÆNA, gen. nov.  Reichenbach, in 1850, proposed the generic name Nisius, and gave a figure in his Av. Syst. Nat. Vög. pl. lxxi, which has been associated by previous authors with Thamnophilus leachi, Such, as the type; but, when that bird is compared with the figure, it will be easily seen that Reichenbach could not have founded it on that species, as it is not anything like it. The species was originally, and has for many years been, placed in the genus Thamnophilus, Vieillot, where it was equally out of place, as it is so entirely different from that genus, which was founded on Lanius doliatus, Linn. I propose, therefore, the new generic title Mackenziæna, with the following characters:— Head not crested, no concealed white dorsal patch, tail much longer than the wing.  Bill short and stout, the depth about two-thirds the length of the exposed culmen.  The wing, which is rounded, has the fifth primary longest.  Coloration: the male is black, with ovate white spots and bars to the feathers, and the female is brown marked with buff.   Type, M. leachi (Such)." (Chubb 1918) (see Frederickena).
Synon. Lochites, Nisius, Othello, Picrotes.

severa
L. severus  grim, cruel, stern, grave, austere.