What is the species and genus of the Brown Thrasher?

Question

No, not the Atlanta Thrashers, the bird. And no, not Thrash. Anyway, go Thrashers!!! Thanks you.

Answer 1

Toxostoma rufum. (In case you don't know the nomenclature rules Toxostoma is genus and rufum is species epithet, together they make up the species name.)

There is a real easy way to check for these titles. Type the species name in wikipedia then copy it and do a yahoo search for it to make sure wikipedia was correct.

*edited to fix the error haysoos spoted. He is correct, for example "americanus" is used for lots of species includeing Habronattus americanus (a spider) and Ursus americanus (amarican black bear).

Answer 2

Beef is correct.

However I feel compelled to point out one error in his answer. Toxostoma rufum is the species name. Toxostoma is indeed the genus, but the 'rufum' portion is merely the specific epithet, NOT the species name. It cannot be used without the genus name.

The same specific epithet can be used in multiple species names, but the combination of that genus name with that specific epithet is what makes the scientific name of the brown thrasher.

For example, Eriosema rufum is a type of pea plant; Philydor rufum is another type of bird known as the buff-fronted foliage gleaner; Agyrium rufum is a type of lichen; Sigmophoranema rufum is a type of nematode roundworm.

In each case, the word 'rufum' is useless as a species identifier without the genus name.

And now that I've vented my pedantic taxonomic pet peeve, I urge you to vote Beef as the Best Answer, cuz he was still correct.