Pytilia Afra Bird

English Name:  Orange-winged Pytilia
Latin Name:  Pytilia afra
Protonym:  Fringilla afra Syst.Nat. 1 pt2 p.905
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Estrildidae / Pytilia
Taxonomy Code:  orwpyt1
Type Locality:  Angola.
Author:  Gmelin, JF
Publish Year:  1789
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

PYTILIA
(Estrildidae; Ϯ Red-winged Pytilia P. phoenicoptera) Dim. < genus Pitylus Cuvier, 1829, grosbeak; "RED WINGED BENGALY.  Pytilia phœnicoptera, SWAINS.  ...  Nearly all the types which represent the order of waders have the bill much more lengthened than any of their immediate congeners. We see this throughout  all the larger groups of nature, whether in quadrupeds or birds, fishes or insects. We may even trace it in the present subfamily, in the genus Carduelis, and we find this same character in the type before us, distinguished as it is by having a more lengthened bill than is to be found in any of the divisions just made. It is separated from Estrelda by its short tail, and from Amadina by its lengthened bill. A second example is that lovely bird the Fringilla elegans of authors. Both these, in addition to the above characters, have the second quill shortened, and conspicuously narrowed towards the end; the feet are small, and the tail almost even; the bill, as before observed, is shaped like that of Euplectes." (Swainson 1837); "Pytilia¹ Swainson, 1837, Birds W. Africa, 1, p. 203. Type, by monotypy, Pytilia phoenicoptera Swainson.  ...  ¹ Swainson, 1837 (March or May), Birds W. Africa, 1, p. 203, used Pytilia, and in 1837 (June or July), Class. Birds, 2, p. 280, used Pytelia. In the absence of any indication as to which he preferred I use the earliest name." (Traylor in Peters 1968, XIV, 312).
Var. Pitylia, Pytelia, Pitelia.
Synon. Marquetia, Zonogastris.

afra
L. Afer, Afra  African  < Africa  Africa, originally the territory of Carthage.
● "85. OTIS.  ...  afra.  4. O. nigra, dorso cinereo, auribus albis.  Habitat in Æthiopia I. Burmannus.  Maris Rostrum & Pedes flavi. Vertex cinereus. Alarum margo exterior album. Femina tota cinerea, exceptis femoribus abdomineque atris." (Linnaeus 1758) (Afrotis).
● Senegal; ex “African Roller” of Latham 1787 (syn. Eurystomus glaucurus).
● Angola; ex “Red-faced Finch” of Brown 1776, and Latham 1783 (Pytilia).