Amytornis

Grasswrens are birds in the genus Amytornis, part of the Australasian wren family, Maluridae.

==Taxonomy== The genus name Amytornis was coined in 1885 by the Norwegian born zoologist Leonhard Stejneger as a replacement for Amytis that had been introduced in 1831 by the French naturalist René Lesson. The name Amytis was pre-occupied as it had been used in 1822 by the French zoologist Marie Jules César Savigny for a group of annelid worms. As Lesson had listed two species in his new genus but had not specified a type, the type was designated by the English zoologist George Gray in 1841 as Malurus textilis Quoy and Gaimard, the western grasswren. The replacement name Amytornis combines the genus Amytis that had been introduced by Lesson with the Ancient Greek ορνις/ornis, ορνιθος/ornithos meaning "bird". Amytis was the daughter of the Median king Astyages, and the wife of Cyrus II.