| Longclaws | |
|---|---|
| |
| Yellow-throated longclaw (Macronyx croceus) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Motacillidae |
| Genus: | Macronyx Swainson, 1827 |
| Type species | |
| Alauda capensis Linnaeus, 1766
| |
| Species | |
|
8, see text | |
The longclaws are a genus, Macronyx, of small African passerine birds in the family Motacillidae.
Longclaws are slender, often colorful, ground-feeding insectivores of open country. They are ground nesters, laying up to four speckled eggs. They are named for their unusually long hind claws, which are thought to help in walking on grass. There are only between 10,000 and 19,000 Sharpe's longclaw left in Kenya.
The genus Macronyx was introduced by the English naturalist William John Swainson in 1827 with the Cape longclaw as the type species.[1][2] The name combines the Classical Greek words makros "long" or "great" and onux "claw".[3]
- ^ Swainson, William John (1827). "On several groups and forms in ornithology, not hitherto defined". Zoological Journal. 3: 343–363 [344].
- ^ Mayr, Ernst; Greenway, James C. Jr, eds. (1960). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 9. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 142.
- ^ Jobling, J.A. (2018). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 2 May 2018.