Genus of birds
Amaurornis is a genus of birds in the rail family Rallidae. The species in this genus are typically called bush-hens. A monotypic subtribe, Amaurornithina, was proposed for this genus.
Taxonomy.
The genus "Amaurornis" was erected by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1853 with the plain bush-hen ("Amaurornis olivacea") as the type species. The name comes from the Greek "amauros", meaning "dusky" or "brown" and "ornis", meaning "bird".
The New Guinea flightless rail was sometimes included in this genus, but more often held to constitute a distinct monotypic genus "Megacrex". The first cladistic studies of rails, based on morphology, strongly suggested that "Amaurornis" as traditionally defined is not monophyletic, and that several species placed here are in fact closer to the small crakes traditionally placed in "Porzana". This was subsequently confirmed by molecular data. However, these smallish species are probably not close to the large members of "Porzana" either, and would warrant re-establishment of the old genus "Zapornia".
Species.
The genus contains five species:
References.
 Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
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