''Melanocichla'' is a

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 ...

of birds in the Old World babbler family Timaliidae.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Melanocichla'' was introduced in 1883 by the English ornithologist

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mono ...

to accommodate a single species, the

black laughingthrush The black laughingthrush (''Melanocichla lugubris'') is a species of bird in the family Timaliidae. It is found in highland forests in the Thai-Malay Peninsula and on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Until recently, it usually included the bare ...

, which is therefore 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 ...

of the genus. 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 ...

''melas'' meaning "black" with ''kikhlkikhlē'' meaning "thrush".

Species

The genus contains the following species:

References

{{Timaliidae-stub