The Mauritius grey white-eye (''Zosterops mauritianus'') is a species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It is one of two white-eye species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the island of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

, the other being the rare and localized

Mauritius olive white-eye The Mauritius olive white-eye (''Zosterops chloronothos'', often mistakenly spelled ''Zosterops chloronothus''(2007) Rare Birds Yearbook 2008. England: MagDig Media Lmtd, 208. .) is a very rare and localized passerine from the family of white-ey ...

. It inhabits woodlands, forests, and gardens. The

Réunion grey white-eye The Réunion grey white-eye (''Zosterops borbonicus'') is a small passerine from the family Zosteropidae, which is native to the islands of Réunion.Gill F. and Donsker D. (eds), Family Zosteropidae, in IOC World Bird Names (ver 6.2), Internatio ...

is very closely related. They were formerly considered conspecific and together called Mascarene white-eye.

Taxonomy

The Mauritius grey white-eye was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist

Johann Friedrich Gmelin , fields = , workplaces = University of GöttingenUniversity of Tübingen , alma_mater = University of Tübingen , doctoral_advisor = Philipp Friedrich GmelinFerdinand Christoph Oetinger , academic_advisors = , doctora ...

in his revised and expanded edition of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

's ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

''. He placed it with the wagtails in the

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 ...

'' Motacilla'' and coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Motacilla mauritiana''. Gmelin based his account on the "Figuier bleu" that had been described in 1778 by the French polymath, the

Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent F ...

, in his ''Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux''. A hand-coloured engraving by François-Nicolas Martinet was published to accompany Buffon's text. The Mauritius grey white-eye is now placed with around one hundred white-eyes in the genus '' Zosterops'' that was introduced in 1827 by

Nicholas Vigors Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – 26 October 1840) was an Irish zoologist and politician. He popularized the classification of birds on the basis of the quinarian system. Early life Vigors was born at Old Leighlin, County Carlow on 1785 as fi ...

and

Thomas Horsfield Thomas Horsfield (May 12, 1773 – July 24, 1859) was an American physician and natural history, naturalist who worked extensively in Indonesia, describing numerous species of plants and animals from the region. He was later a curator of the Eas ...

Gallery

Mauritius Grey White-eye. Zosterops mauritianus - Flickr - gailhampshire (4).jpg, A pair at Ramgoolam Botanical Garden Mascarene Grey White-eye.jpg, At the Black River estuary Mauritius Grey White-eye. Zosterops mauritianus - Flickr - gailhampshire (3).jpg, View of the white tail coverts Mauritius Grey White-eye. Zosterops mauritianus - Flickr - gailhampshire.jpg, Collecting nesting material

References

Birds described in 1789 Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin Birds of Mauritius Zosterops Endemic fauna of Mauritius {{Zosteropidae-stub