Song thrush "Turdus", is the Latin for "thrush", and the specific epithet refers to a character in Greek mythology, Philomela, who had her tongue cut out, but was changed into a singing bird. Her name is derived from the Ancient Greek "Φιλο" "philo-" ("loving"), and "μέλος" "melos" ("song"). The dialect names "throstle" and "mavis" both mean "thrush", being related to the German "drossel" and French "mauvis" respectively. "Throstle" dates back to at least the fourteenth century and was used by Chaucer in the "Parliament of Fowls". Mavis is derived via Middle English "mavys" and Old French "mauvis" from Middle Breton "milhuyt" meaning
Varied thrush Varied thrush The varied thrush ("Ixoreus naevius") is a member of the thrush family, Turdidae. The German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin described the varied thrush in 1789. Four subspecies are recognised: The genus name "Ixoreus" comes from the Ancient Greek "ixos", "mistletoe". This was a synonym of a former name for the mockingbird genus, "Mimus"; the genus creator Bonaparte assumed wrongly that, because Swainson had shown a mockingbird and this thrush on the same plate of his book, they were related. The specific "naevius" is Latin for "spotted" from "naevus", " spot". The varied thrush is a fairly large thrush