Grassquit

Origin

From grass + quit("small passerine bird").

Full definition of grassquit

Noun

1. Any of several small tropical birds now placed in the tanager family Thraupidae (but previously in Emberizidae), common in the West Indies and in countries of Central and South America around the Caribbean Sea.
• 1988 1948, David Lack, Notes (for 1988 edition), Darwin's Finches, page xv,Steadman (1982) suggests that Darwin's finches are so closely related to the South American blue-black grassquit (Volatinia jacarina), that all 14 species plus the grassquit should be considered congeners within a new genus, Geospiza.
• 1999, Peter R. Grant, Ecology and Evolution of Darwin's Finches, page xv,The molecular work also makes a compelling case that Darwin's finches were originally grassquits.
• 2012, Jonnie Hughes, On the Origin of Tepees: Why Some Ideas Spread While Others Go Extinct, unnumbered page,The current guess is that it was the wonderfully named dull-coloured grassquit, because this is the bird with the closest genetic code to the Galapagos finches.

Derived terms

• black-faced grassquit ()
• blue-black grassquit ()
• Cuban grassquit ()
• dull-coloured grassquit ()
• sooty grassquit ()
• yellow-faced grassquit ()
• yellow-shouldered grassquit ()