''Arremon'' is a genus of
neotropical bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s in the family
Passerellidae. With the exception of the
green-striped brushfinch which is endemic to
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, all species are found in South America, with a few reaching Central America.
These sparrows are found in lowland woodlands and forests where they usually forage on the ground. They have olive or grey upperparts with a black head. Many have a white line above the eye and some have a black band across the breast.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Arremon'' was erected in 1816 by the French ornithologist
Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in his ''Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire'' to accommodate the
pectoral sparrow
The pectoral sparrow (''Arremon taciturnus'') is a species of bird in the family Passerellidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist l ...
(''Arremon taciturnus''). The name is from the
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
''arrhēmōn'' meaning "silent" or "without speech". The pectoral sparrow had been given the French name "L'Oiseau Silencieux" by the polymath
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779.
The genus contains 20 species.
This genus includes species traditionally placed in ''Buarremon'' and ''Lysurus''.
References
External links
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q588866
Bird genera
Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot