Melidectes Princeps Bird

English Name:  Long-bearded Melidectes
Latin Name:  Melidectes princeps
Protonym:  Melidectes princeps Am.Mus.Novit. no.1524 p.13
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Meliphagidae / Melidectes
Taxonomy Code:  lobmel1
Type Locality:  Mt. Wilhelm, Bismarck Range, eastern New Guinea.
Author:  Mayr & Gilliard
Publish Year:  1951
IUCN Status:  Vulnerable

DEFINITIONS

MELIDECTES
(Meliphagidae; Ϯ Ornate Honeyeater M. torquatus) Gr. μελι meli,  μελιτος melitos  honey; δηκτης dēktēs  biter  < δηκω dēkō  to bite; "11. MELIDECTES TORQUATUS, gen. et sp. n.  (Pl. LV.)  Melidectes gen. nov.† ex familia Meliphagidarum: rostro elongato, caput æquante, tenuiusculo, parum arcuato; naribus linearibus, in sulco longitudinali positis: spatio altero postoculari lato et altero postrictali angusto omnino nudis; cauda longa, paulum rotundata; tarsis modicis: alis acutis, modice elongatis.   ...  MELIDECTES TORQUATUS, sp. n.  ...  This is a conspicuous new Meliphagine form, not very far from Ptilotis, but distinguishable by the bareness of the sides of the face and bare stripe behind the rictus. These are separated by a scanty line of feathers extending beneath the eye.   ...   †  Mελι, mel, et δηκτης, mordicator." (P. Sclater 1874); "Melidectes Sclater, 1873 [= 1874], Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 694. Type, by monotypy, Melidectes torquatus Sclater." (Salomonsen in Peters 1967, XII, 415).
Synon. Melionyx, Melirrhophetes.

princeps
L. princeps, principis  prince, chief, leader  < primus  foremost  < super. prior, prius  first; capere  to take.
● Jules Laurent Lucien, later called Charles Lucien Jules Laurent 2^nd Prince of Canino and Musignano and Prince Bonaparte (1803-1857) French ornithologist, taxonomist, collector (Actenoides).
● Bismarck Range, Papua New Guinea (German prinz  prince; named after Otto Eduard Leopold Prinz von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1815-1898); the four highest peaks were named after him and his children, Marie, Herbert and Wilhelm) (Melidectes).
● "I therefore propose to name the Massachusetts bird Passerculus princeps, the large barren ground sparrow" (Maynard 1872); ex “Centronyx bairdii” of Maynard 1868 (subsp. Passerculus sandwichensis).
● Príncipe I., Gulf of Guinea (Portuguese príncipe  prince; named after Príncipe João of Portugal (1455-1495)) (Ploceus, subsp. Psittacus erithacus).