Black-headed Saltator

SCI Name:  Saltator atriceps
Protonym:  Tanagra (Saltator) atriceps Cent.Zool. p.208 pl.69
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Thraupidae / Saltator
Taxonomy Code:  blhsal1
Type Locality:  Mexico ; restricted to Veracruz by Griscom, 1937, Auk, 54, p. 198.
Author:  Lesson
Publish Year:  1832
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

SALTATOR
(Thraupidae; Ϯ Buff-throated Saltator S. maximus) L. saltator, saltatoris  dancer  < saltare  to dance (cf. Tupí name Tangara  dancer, one who turns and skips, for the manakins and various colourful finch-like birds (see Tangara)); "66. HABIA, de Azara. Saltator. Tanagra, Lin. Gm. Lath.  Bec épais à la base, court, robuste, convexe en dessus, un peu comprimé par les côtés, échancré vers le bout; mandibule supérieure un peu fléchie en arc et couvrant les bords de l'inférieure.   Esp. Grand Tangara, Buff." (Vieillot 1816) ; "Saltator Vieillot, 1816, Analyse, p. 32. Type, by monotypy, "Grand Tanagra" Buffon = Tanagra maxima Müller." (Paynter in Peters 1970, XIII, 228). The saltators and their allies have also been placed with the finches Fringillidae, and the cardinals Cardinalidae, or treated as a separate family Saltatoridae.
Var. Salator, Sallator, Sattator, Staltator.
Synon. Cissurus, Pitylus, Pyrorhamphus, Saltatricula, Stelgidostomus.

saltator
L. saltator, saltatoris  dancer  < saltare  to dance  < salire  to jump.
● ex "Le Pavaneur" of Levaillant 1801-1804 (French pavaneur  strutter); "Gattung Calamoherpe.  ...  1. saltator Vaill. Afr. pl. 122. fig. 1. 2." (Boie 1828) (syn. Acrocephalus schoenobaenus).
● ex “Pingoin Sauteur” of de Bougainville 1771 (French sauteur  jumper) (syn. Eudyptes chrysocome) (see Chrysocoma).
● "56. SAXICOLA SALTATOR  ...  il va ordinairement par paires, et sautille continuellement; il se place volontiers sur les pointes de rochers, et là, il s'élève perpendiculairement en agitant fortement ses ailes, et faisant entendre un zri, zri, zri, très sonore; posé, il a un petit gazouillement très agréable" (Ménétries 1832) (French sautiller  to hop) (syn. Oenanthe hispanica melanoleuca).
● "Not unfrequently we are startled by a shrill scream in some lonely place, and out rushes the Hopping Dick, jumping with rapidity across the road, almost close to our horse's feet.  ...  At the break of day, if we pass along a wooded mountain road  ...  we see the Hopping Dicks bounding singly along the ground in every part  ...  many of these Merles were gliding from one thicket to another, and dashing across the road with that bounding run from which they derive their soubriquet of Hopping Dick  ...  Ouzel, which I would call Merula Saltator, as this name preserves his distinctive soubriquet of Hopping Dick, and refers to his characteristic length of legs, both at the tarsus and the thighs." (Gosse & Hill 1847) (syn. Turdus aurantius).

atriceps
L. ater  black; -ceps  -capped, -headed  < caput, capitis  head.

SUBSPECIES

Black-headed Saltator (atriceps)
SCI Name: Saltator atriceps atriceps
atriceps
L. ater  black; -ceps  -capped, -headed  < caput, capitis  head.

Black-headed Saltator (suffuscus)
SCI Name: Saltator atriceps suffuscus
suffuscus
L. suffuscus brownish, dusky.

Black-headed Saltator (flavicrissus)
SCI Name: Saltator atriceps flavicrissus
flavicrissus
L. flavus  yellow, golden-yellow; Mod. L. crissus  vented  < crissum  vent  < L. crissare  to copulate.

Black-headed Saltator (peeti)
SCI Name: Saltator atriceps peeti
peeti
Dr Max Minor Peet (1885-1949) US neurological surgeon (syn. Botaurus lentiginosus, subsp. Saltator atriceps).

Black-headed Saltator (raptor)
SCI Name: Saltator atriceps raptor
raptor
L. raptor, raptoris  robber, plunderer  < rapere  to seize.
● "Der Aquila rapax steht in Farbe und Zeichnung unsere  Aquila raptor, spec. nov., sehr nahe, unterscheidet sich von ihm aber durch ihre bedeutende Grösse, denn diese steht zu der der Aquila rapax fast in demselben Verhältnisse, wie die der Aquila clanga, Pall. zu der der Aquila naevia auct.; der Grössenunterchied zwischen den ersteren Beiden ist aber noch auffälliger." (A. E. Brehm 1855) (syn Aquila rapax belisarius).
● “It feeds principally on grain and seeds, and is very voracious and destructive” (Cabot 1845) (subsp. Saltator atriceps).

Black-headed Saltator (lacertosus)
SCI Name: Saltator atriceps lacertosus
lacertosa / lacertosus
L. lacertosus  powerful  < lacertus  upper arm.