Grasswren

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small, shy songbird native to Australia that lives low in grassy or scrubby ground and belongs to the fairywren family
2. A tiny ground-dwelling bird of the Australian interior, found skulking through grass and spinifex and related to the fairywrens
3. Any of several small, secretive Australian passerines that forage among dense grass and low shrubs and are closely related to fairywrens

Etymology: A grasswren is a small songbird of Australia and New Guinea, and its name is a plain compound: "grass" joined to "wren". The "wren" half refers to the family's habit of skulking low in vegetation and flicking its short tail, much like the small wrens of Europe and America, which are only distantly related. The "grass" half points to the grassland and tussock habitat where many of these birds live and forage. The result is a name that describes a bird by its surroundings and its general look rather than by any close kinship. Grasswrens belong to the Maluridae family, the fairywrens and their relatives, which are not true wrens at all, so the name is a useful example of how colonial-era naturalists borrowed familiar English names for unfamiliar birds.