Leaflitter babbler

The leaflitter babbler (Pellorneum poliogene) is a species of bird in the ground babbler family Pellorneidae that is found in northern and central Borneo. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the short-tailed babbler, now renamed the mourning babbler (Pellorneum malaccense).

Leaflitter babbler
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Pellorneidae
Genus:	Pellorneum
Species:	P. poliogene
Binomial name
Pellorneum poliogene (Strickland, 1849)

Illustration of the leaflitter babbler from: Strickland, H.E., 1849. Notes on several species of birds from Malacca. Contributions to Ornithology for 1848-1853. Edinburgh: W.H. Lizars. Plate 31

Taxonomy

The leaflitter babbler was formally described in 1849 by the English naturalist Hugh Edwin Strickland based on a specimen collected in Borneo. He placed it with the shortwings in the genus Brachypteryx and coined the binomial name Brachypteryx poliogenis.^[1][2] The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek polios meaning "grey" and genus meaning "cheek".^[3] The leaflitter babbler is now placed in the genus Pellorneum that was introduced in 1832 by the English naturalist William Swainson. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the short-tailed babbler (renamed the mourning babbler) (Pellorneum malaccense) but based on vocal and genetic differences it is now treated as a separate species and is considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.^[4][5]