''Coturnicops'' is a genus of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fil ...

family.

Taxonomy

The genus was erected by the English zoologist

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoology, zoologist and author, and head of the Ornithology, ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum, London f ...

in 1855 with the

yellow rail The yellow rail (''Coturnicops noveboracensis'') is a small secretive marsh bird of the family Rallidae that is found in North America. Taxonomy The yellow rail was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in h ...

(''Coturnicops noveboracensis'') as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

. The genus name combines ''coturnix'', the Latin word for a "quail", with ''ōps'', an

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

word meaning "appearance".

Species

The genus contains the following two species: The genus formerly included the speckled rail (''Laterallus notatus'').

References

Rallidae Birds described in 1855 Taxa named by George Robert Gray Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Bird genera {{Gruiformes-stub