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Mascarene swiftlet

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Taxonomy

The Mascarene swiftlet was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the swifts and swallows in the genus Hirundo and coined the binomial name Hirundo francica. Gmelin based his description on "La petite hirondelle noire à croupion gris" that had been described in 1779 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon from a specimen collected on the "Île de France" (Mauritius) in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. A hand-coloured illustration was also published. The Mascarene swiftlet is now placed with 27 other swiftlets in the genus Aerodramus that was introduced in 1906 by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek aēr meaning "air" with -dromos meaning "-racer" (from trekhō "to run"). The specific epithet francicus signifies the "Île de France", the type locality.

Two subspecies are recognised:

  • A. f. francicus (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – Mauritius
  • A. f. saffordi Kirwan, Shirihai & Schweizer, 2018 – La Réunion

More in Animals

Monotypic taxonTaxonomic group with only one subordinate taxonSpecies descriptionFormal description of a discovered speciesParaphylyType of taxonomic groupIUCN Red ListInventory of the global conservation status of biological speciesSubtropicsGeographic and climate zoneCommon nameName generally used for a taxon, group of taxa or organism(s)