''Cyrtonyx'' is a bird

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

in the New World quail family Odontophoridae. The genus ''Cyrtonyx'' was introduced in 1844 by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould. The name combines 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 ...

''kurtos'' meaning "curved" and ''onux'' meaning "nail" or "claw". The

type species In 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 species that contains the biological type specimen ...

is the Montezuma quail (''Cyrtonyx montezumae'').

Species

The genus contains two species:

References

Bird genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Galliformes-stub