Pytilia Melba Bird

English Name:  Green-winged Pytilia
Latin Name:  Pytilia melba
Protonym:  Fringilla Melba Syst.Nat.ed.10 p.180
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Estrildidae / Pytilia
Taxonomy Code:  grwpyt1
Type Locality:  China [= Angola, see Zedlitz, 1916, Journ. f. Ornith., 64, p. 31] ; restricted to Luanda by Clancey, 1962, Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, 82, p. 4.
Author:  Linnaeus
Publish Year:  1758
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.

melba
● Etymology undiscovered; "98. FRINGILLA.  ...  Melba.  10. F. facie caudaque rubris, abdomine albo nigroque undato, dorso viridis.  Cardueli affinis viridis. Edw. av. 128. t. 128.  Habitat in China." (Linnaeus 1758, Systema Naturae, ed. 10, I, 180); perhaps from a supposed Chinese word or place. The Emberiza melbensis of Cuvier 1817, is a lapsus for Emberiza maelbyensis Sparrman, 1786 (= Emberiza hortulana ☼)  (Pytilia).
● Etymology undiscovered; "101. HIRUNDO.  ...  Melba.  8. H. fusca, gula abdomineque albis.  Hirundo riparia maxima.  Edw. av. 27. t. 27.  Klein. av. 83.  Habitat ad fretum Herculeum." (Linnaeus 1758, Systema Naturae, ed. 10, I, 192).  Coomans de Ruiter et al. 1947, write, “Melber is een Z.-Duitsch woord voor meel-handelaar, hetgeen te denken geeft, als men weet, dat de Huiszwaluw [Delichon] in Duitschland Mehlschwalbe heet.”  Macleod 1954, mentions “Melba” as an Old German name for a gull Larus referred to in Albertus Magnus (De Avibus, 1479).  I was unable to locate this name in Albertus Magnus, but Björn Bergenholtz has found the following passage (Lib. 8, p. 246), dealing with pugnacity in nature: "Eadem autem causæ pugnæ est avibus & animalibus marinis: pugnant enim adinuicem bathiom, quod est species merguli, quod pisces venatur: & avis quæ vocatur latrom: & est avis alba & marina quam nos melbam vocamus: & est causa pugnæ præda piscium", and, later (p. 562), on the names of gulls: "Laros est avis alba marina quam nos melbam (meuvam) vocamus."  This is certainly the origin of the name, and may be a corrupt transposition of "alba et marina," or, more likely, a corruption of Old German Meuuw  gull (cf. German Möwe  gull).  Here there could be a tenuous connection between the Alpine Swift (long thought to be a kind of swallow Hirundo) and a gull (related to the terns or sea swallows Sterna).  Eigenhuis & Swaab 1992, hesitantly posit that ‘melba’ might be a short form for ‘melanoalba’ or ‘melalba’ (Gr. μελας melas, μελανος melanos black; L. albus, white).  Linnaeus certainly referred to these two colours in his diagnosis (as he did also re Pytilia), but he tended not to be prone to such playful fancies (Tachymarptis).

SUBSPECIES

Green-winged Pytilia (citerior)
Latin Name: Pytilia melba citerior
citerior
L. citerior, citerioris  nearer, closer  < comp. citer  on this side.

Green-winged Pytilia (jessei)
Latin Name: Pytilia melba jessei
jessei
William Jesse, Sr. (1809-?1906) British zoologist on the Abyssinian Expedition 1868 (syn. Alaemon alaudipes desertorum, subsp. Pytilia melba).

Green-winged Pytilia (soudanensis)
Latin Name: Pytilia melba soudanensis
soudanensis
Sudan.

Green-winged Pytilia (flavicaudata)
Latin Name: Pytilia melba flavicaudata
flavicaudata / flavicaudatus
L. flavus golden-yellow, yellow; caudatus tailed  < cauda  tail.

Green-winged Pytilia (grotei)
Latin Name: Pytilia melba grotei
grotei
Hermann Grote (1882-1951) German director of sisal plantation in German East Africa 1908-1913, linguist, ornithologist (Alcippe, subsp. Anthus cinnamomeus, subsp. Crithagra mozambica, subsp. Dessonornis macclounii, subsp. Hypsipetes madagascariensis, syn. Luscinia svecica volgae, syn. Muscicapa adusta pumila, syn. Phyllastrephus fischeri, subsp. Pternistis hildebrandti, subsp. Pytilia melba, syn. Streptopelia vinacea).

Green-winged Pytilia (belli)
Latin Name: Pytilia melba belli
belli
• John Graham Bell (1812-1889) US taxidermist, field ornithologist, collector (Artemisiospiza, Basileuterus).
• Raoul 'Roy' Sunday Bell (1882-1966) naturalist born on Sunday I., Kermadecs, ornithologist, photographer, collector (Laurent Raty in litt.) (syn. Chlidonias leucopterus, syn. Cuculus saturatus optatus, syn. Urodynamis taitensis).
• Dr William Abraham Bell (1841-1921) British businessman, real-estate developer in USA 1867-1890, naturalist, subscriber to the Ruwenzori Expedition (Paul Scofield in litt.) (subsp. Cisticola cantans, subsp. Pytilia melba).
• Sir Henry Hesketh Joudou Bell (1864-1952) British colonial administrator, Administrator of Dominica 1899-1906, Commissioner for Uganda 1906-1909, Gov. of Northern Nigeria 1909-1911, Gov. of Leeward Is. 1912-1916, Gov. of Mauritius 1916-1924 (‡syn. Cyanophaia bicolor).
• R. M. Bell (b. 1908) British colonial administrator in Tanganyika 1937-1954 (syn. Eremomela icteropygialis polioxantha).

Green-winged Pytilia (percivali)
Latin Name: Pytilia melba percivali
percivali
Arthur Blayney Percival (1875-1941) British collector, ornithologist in Arabia and southern Africa, game-ranger in Kenya 1901-1923 (syn. Arizelocichla nigriceps usambarae, Oriolus, syn. Psalidoprocne pristoptera, subsp. Pytilia melba, Rhynchostruthus, subsp. Stelgidillas gracilirostris, subsp. Tchagra senegalus).

Green-winged Pytilia (melba)
Latin Name: Pytilia melba melba
melba
● Etymology undiscovered; "98. FRINGILLA.  ...  Melba.  10. F. facie caudaque rubris, abdomine albo nigroque undato, dorso viridis.  Cardueli affinis viridis. Edw. av. 128. t. 128.  Habitat in China." (Linnaeus 1758, Systema Naturae, ed. 10, I, 180); perhaps from a supposed Chinese word or place. The Emberiza melbensis of Cuvier 1817, is a lapsus for Emberiza maelbyensis Sparrman, 1786 (= Emberiza hortulana ☼)  (Pytilia).
● Etymology undiscovered; "101. HIRUNDO.  ...  Melba.  8. H. fusca, gula abdomineque albis.  Hirundo riparia maxima.  Edw. av. 27. t. 27.  Klein. av. 83.  Habitat ad fretum Herculeum." (Linnaeus 1758, Systema Naturae, ed. 10, I, 192).  Coomans de Ruiter et al. 1947, write, “Melber is een Z.-Duitsch woord voor meel-handelaar, hetgeen te denken geeft, als men weet, dat de Huiszwaluw [Delichon] in Duitschland Mehlschwalbe heet.”  Macleod 1954, mentions “Melba” as an Old German name for a gull Larus referred to in Albertus Magnus (De Avibus, 1479).  I was unable to locate this name in Albertus Magnus, but Björn Bergenholtz has found the following passage (Lib. 8, p. 246), dealing with pugnacity in nature: "Eadem autem causæ pugnæ est avibus & animalibus marinis: pugnant enim adinuicem bathiom, quod est species merguli, quod pisces venatur: & avis quæ vocatur latrom: & est avis alba & marina quam nos melbam vocamus: & est causa pugnæ præda piscium", and, later (p. 562), on the names of gulls: "Laros est avis alba marina quam nos melbam (meuvam) vocamus."  This is certainly the origin of the name, and may be a corrupt transposition of "alba et marina," or, more likely, a corruption of Old German Meuuw  gull (cf. German Möwe  gull).  Here there could be a tenuous connection between the Alpine Swift (long thought to be a kind of swallow Hirundo) and a gull (related to the terns or sea swallows Sterna).  Eigenhuis & Swaab 1992, hesitantly posit that ‘melba’ might be a short form for ‘melanoalba’ or ‘melalba’ (Gr. μελας melas, μελανος melanos black; L. albus, white).  Linnaeus certainly referred to these two colours in his diagnosis (as he did also re Pytilia), but he tended not to be prone to such playful fancies (Tachymarptis).

Green-winged Pytilia (hygrophila)
Latin Name: Pytilia melba hygrophila
hygrophila
Gr. ὑγρος hugros  wet, moist, liquid; φιλος philos  loving  < φιλεω phileō  to love  < φιλος philos  lover.