This specimen was obtained by Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby from bird collector Jules Verreaux in 1850 and was on display in the Liverpool Museum since then.

It was believed to be an extinct starling from Madagascar, or the Mascarenes, described by Henry Ogg Forbes under the name Necropsar leguati and sketched by bird illustrator John Gerrard Keulemans.

[3] Tremblers derive their name from a typical behavior "in which the wings both are drooped and angled slightly away from the body...making very rapid vertical and lateral motions.

[5] The grey trembler forages from the ground to the forest canopy, tearing open tangles and probing epiphyte clusters.

Its diet has not been studied in detail but includes insects and other invertebrates, fruits, and occasionally small lizards.

The grey trembler's song is "[r]epeated notes and phrases, harsh to melodic, quavering whistles".