Clark's Nutcracker

SCI Name:  Nucifraga columbiana
Protonym:  Corvus columbianus Am.Orn. 3 p.xv,29 pl.20 fig.2
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Corvidae / Nucifraga
Taxonomy Code:  clanut
Type Locality:  shores of the Columbia ; restricted by Davis and Stevenson (1934, Condor, 36, p. 162) to the Clearwater River, about two miles north of Kamish, Idaho.
Author:  Wilson, A
Publish Year:  1811
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

NUCIFRAGA
(Corvidae; Ϯ Northern Nutcracker N. caryocatactes) Late Med. L. nucifraga  a name given to the Northern Nutcracker by Turner 1544, as a translation of the German name Nussbrecher  nut-breaker  < L. nux, nucis  nut; frangere  to shatter; "{Plumis basis rostri antrorsum incumbentibus, naresque tegentibus  ...  {Rostro recto  ...  {Mandibula superiore longiore & obtusa . . . . . Nucifraga. Genus 17.   ...   **1. LE CASSE-NOIX.  ...  NUCIFRAGA  ...  Nucibus, Amygdalis, &c. victitat" (Brisson 1760); based on "Nucifraga" and "Caryocatactes" of Gessner 1555, Schwenckfeld 1603, and other authors, "Ossifragus" and "Coccothraustes" of Rzaczynski 1721, and "Nut-Cracker" of Edwards 1751; "Nucifraga Brisson, 1760, Ornithologie, 1, p. 30. Type, by tautonymy, "nucifraga," ibid., 2, p. 59 = Corvus caryocatactes Linnaeus." (Vaurie in Peters 1962, XV, 256).
Synon. Caryocatactes, Picicorvus.

nucifraga
Late Med. L. nucifraga a name given to the Spotted Nutcracker by Turner 1544, as a translation of the German name Nussbrecher  nut-breaker  < L. nux, nucis  nut; frangere  to shatter. Var. Nuciphraga.

columbiana / columbianum / columbianus
● Colombia. To this day the name of Colombia is misspelled in newspapers, scientific works (e.g. NAOC Vancouver 2012 Abstracts, p. 207) and books, and on television (e.g. BBC News Channel (Travel!) 14 May 2017), and generally wrongly pronounced there (e.g. Channel 4 Seven O’Clock News, 10 October 2011) and on radio (e.g. BBC Radio 2 Jeremy Vine Show 30 November 2016). “America ... north of the Isthmus of Darien, the southern continent being termed Columbia” (Wood 1835) (subsp. Chamaeza campanisona, subsp. Cinclodes excelsior, Crypturellus, Fulica, Ortalis, Phaethornis, subsp. Philydor rufum, subsp. Synallaxis gujanensis).
● Columbia River or Columbia River region (Oregon) (Cygnus (ex “Whistling Swan” of P. Allen 1814), syn. Gymnogyps californianus, Nucifraga, subsp. Pedioecetes phasianellus (ex “Grouse or Prairie Hen” of Lewis 1814), syn. Piranga ludoviciana).
● Greater Colombia (= Venezuela) (Odontophorus, Philydor).
● Columbia County, Florida, USA (‡ Palaeophoyx).
● British Columbia, Canada (subsp. Poecile hudsonicus).
● Erroneous TL. Porto Cabello, Colombia (= Ciudad Bolívar, Río Orinoco, Venezuela) (Sicalis).