Collared Towhee

SCI Name:  Pipilo ocai
Protonym:  Buarremon ocai Ann.Lyc.Nat.Hist.N.Y. 8(1867) p.126 ydP
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Passerellidae / Pipilo
Taxonomy Code:  coltow1
Type Locality:  amended to Las Vigas, northern base of Cofre de Perote, west of Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, by Sibley, 1950, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 50, p. 144.
Author:  Lawrence
Publish Year:  1865
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

PIPILO
(Passerellidae; Ϯ Eastern Towhee P. erythrophthalmus) L. pipilo  I chirp  < pipilare  to chirp, to peep  < pipare  to chirp (see Cumana); "68. TOUIT, Pipilo.  Emberiza, Linn. Gm. Lath.  Bec épais à la base, robuste, convexe en dessus, échancré et courbé à la pointe; mandibule supérieure couvrant les bords de l'inférieure qui sont fléchis en dedans. — Ailes courtes.   Esp. Pinson aux yeux rouges, Buff." (Vieillot 1816); "Pipilo Vieillot, 1816, Analyse, p. 32. Type, by monotypy, "Pinson aux yeux rouges" of Buffon = Fringilla erythrophthalma Linnaeus." (Paynter in Peters 1970, XIII, 168).
Var. Pipillo.
Synon. Chamaeospiza, Chlorura, Hortulanus, Oberholseria, Oreospiza.

ocai
Rafael Montes de Oca (fl. 1883) Mexican artist, botanist, naturalist (Amazilia cyanocephala x Amazilia beryllina, Pipilo).

SUBSPECIES

Collared Towhee (alticola)
SCI Name: Pipilo ocai alticola
alticola
L. altus  high (i.e. highland, mountain)  < alere  to nourish; -cola  dweller  < colere  to inhabit.
● Erroneous TL. Fife, N.E. Rhodesia, near Nyasaland border (= Isoka, Northern Rhodesia / Zambia); "Cisticola alticola  ...  Not a Cisticola (cf. steeply graduated tail of long narrow feathers; broad-based, fine-pointed first primary; lores coloured with head-top, &c.), but nearer Apalis and allies." (Lynes 1930) (Apalis).

Collared Towhee (nigrescens)
SCI Name: Pipilo ocai nigrescens
nigrescens
L. nigrescens, nigrescentis  blackish  < nigrescere  to become black  < niger  black.

Collared Towhee (guerrerensis)
SCI Name: Pipilo ocai guerrerensis
guerrensis / guerrerensis
Guerrero, Mexico.

Collared Towhee (brunnescens)
SCI Name: Pipilo ocai brunnescens
brunnescens
Mod. L. brunnescens, brunnescentis  somewhat brown, brownish  < brunneus  brown  < Med. L. brunius  brown.

Collared Towhee (ocai)
SCI Name: Pipilo ocai ocai
ocai
Rafael Montes de Oca (fl. 1883) Mexican artist, botanist, naturalist (Amazilia cyanocephala x Amazilia beryllina, Pipilo).