Melophus

Melophus
Crested bunting (''Melophus lathami) (Male)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Emberizidae
Genus: Melophus
Swainson, 1837
Type species
Emberiza erythropterus Jardine & Selby, 1833=Emberiza lathami Gray, 1831

Melophus is a genus of small Old World passerine birds in the family Emberizidae. The three species now placed in the genus were formerly placed in the genus Emberiza.

Taxonomy

The genus Melophus was introduced in 1837 by the English zoologist William Swainson to accommodate a single species, Emberiza erythropterus, that had been formally described in 1833 by the English naturalists William Jardine and Prideaux John Selby. The name Emberiza erythropterus is a junior synonym of Emberiza lathami, the crested bunting, that had been introduced in 1831 by the English zoologist John Edward Gray. The genus name Melophus combines the Ancient Greek μελας/melas, μελανος /melanos meaning "black" with λοφος/lophos meaning "crest".

The genus was formerly synonymized with the genus Emberiza that had been introduced by Linnaeus in 1858, but based on a molecular genetic study published in 2021, the genus was resurrected to contain three species.

The genus contains three species:

ImageCommon nameScientific nameDistribution
Crested buntingMelophus lathaminorthern Pakistan to southeastern Tibet, southern China, Laos, and northern Vietnam (Tonkin)
Black-headed buntingMelophus melanocephalusbreeds south-central Eurasia; winters to India
Red-headed buntingMelophus brunicepsbreeds south-central Eurasia; winters in Indian subcontinent

References

  1. ↑ Swainson, William (1837). On the Natural History and Classification of Birds. Vol. 2. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman and John Taylor. p. 290.
  2. ↑ Jardine, William; Selby, Prideaux John (1828). Illustrations of Ornithology. Vol. 2. Edinburgh: W.H. Lizars. Plate 132, text. Issued in parts. For the publication date see: Zimmer, John T. (1926). "Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library". Field Museum of Natural History, Zoology Series. 16 (1): 322–324.
  3. ↑ Gray, John Edward (1831). "Description of twelve undescribed species of Birds, discovered by John Reeves, Esq., in China". The Zoological Miscellany : to be continued occasionally. 1: 1-2 [2].
  4. ↑ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1970). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 13. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 4.
  5. ↑ Jobling, James A. "Melophus". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 25 October 2026.
  6. ↑ Cai, T.; Wu, G.; Sun, L.; Zhang, Y.; Peng, Z.; Guo, Y.; Liu, X.; Pan, T.; Chang, J.; Sun, Z.; Zhang, B. (2021). "Biogeography and diversification of Old World buntings (Aves: Emberizidae): radiation in open habitats". Journal of Avian Biology. 52 (6) jav.02672. doi:10.1111/jav.02672. S2CID 236608560.
  7. 1 2 AviList Core Team (20 October 2026). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2026". doi:10.2173/avilist.v2026. Retrieved 25 October 2026.