Dictionary

grassquit en · NOUN

Etymology

From grass + quit (“small passerine bird”).

Meanings

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.
   • 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. 2012, Jonnie Hughes, On the Origin of Tepees: Why Some Ideas Spread While Others Go Extinct, unnumbered page:
   • 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.
   • The molecular work also makes a compelling case that Darwin's finches were originally grassquits. 1999, Peter R. Grant, Ecology and Evolution of Darwin's Finches, page xv:

Forms

Deriveds

yellow-faced grassquit · dull-coloured grassquit · sooty grassquit · yellow-shouldered grassquit · Cuban grassquit · blue-black grassquit · black-faced grassquit