Cinclocerthia ruficauda gutturalis

Cinclocerthia ruficauda gutturalis NatureServe Explorer Species Reports — NatureServe Explorer is a source for authoritative conservation information on more than 50,000 plants, animals and ecological communtities of the U.S and Canada. NatureServe Explorer provides in-depth information on rare and endangered species, but includes common plants and animals too. NatureServe Explorer is a product of NatureServe in collaboration with the Natural Heritage Network.

FWS Digital Media Library — Cinclocerthia ruficauda gutturalis The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Digital Library is a searchable collection of selected images, historical artifacts, audio clips, publications, and video. The grey trembler is a songbird species in the family Mimidae. It is found only in Martinique and Saint Lucia, the Martinique trembler on the former island, the Saint Lucia trembler – which might be a distinct species – on the latter.

In 1898 a unique skin (accession number D1792 (S)) was discovered in the World Museum Liverpool. This specimen was obtained by Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby from bird collector Jules Verreaux in 1850 and was on display in the Liverpool Museum since then. It was believed to be an extinct starling from Madagascar, or the Mascarenes, described by Henry Ogg Forbes under the name Necropsar leguati and sketched by bird illustrator John Gerrard Keulemans. It was thought to be a close relative of the Rodrigues starling. A vernacular name for this supposed species was “white Mascarene starling”.

However, in April 2000 ancient DNA analysis of that skin in the Smithsonian Institution led by Storrs Olson had shown that the Liverpool specimen was nothing more than a misidentified and mislabeled albinistic specimen of C. g. gutturalis.

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