Guinea Turaco

SCI Name:  Tauraco persa
Protonym:  Cuculus Persa Syst.Nat.ed.10 p.111
Taxonomy:  Musophagiformes / Musophagidae / Tauraco
Taxonomy Code:  guitur1
Type Locality:  Africa, ex Edwards, pi. 7 = Gold Coast.
Author:  Linnaeus
Publish Year:  1758
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

TAURACO
(Musophagidae; Ϯ Guinea Turaco T. persa) According to SOED (1950), II, 2219,  Touraco is a native name in West Africa for the Guinea Turaco. Ray 1713, used “Tooracca” and “Tooraca” (e.g. “Tooracca Pigaly. Red Tooracca with a black head”), but these were for various Indian bulbuls, based on Telugu name Turaka-pigli-pitta for the Red-whiskered Bulbul. De Buffon 1783, coined “Tourocco”, combining French Tourterelle turtle dove, and Hocco curassow; Rüppell 1835 reported that Guguka was an Amharic name for a plantain-eater; and Gotch 1981, has "an imitation of the bird's cry."; "TOURACO.  THIS Bird is about the Bigness of a Magpye or Jay  ...  What genus of Birds to range this with, I cannot positively say; it climes not as Parrots do, nor doth it agree with them in any respect, except in the Position of the Toes; nor is its Bill any thing like a Woodpecker's, so that I think it nearest the Cuckow-kind.  Albin has figur'd this Bird, and calls it the Crown Bird from Mexico; tho' these Birds are indeed Africans, brought from Guinea, by the Way of the West Indies, to us" (Edwards 1743); "TAVRACO; regia avis, Edvv. I. p. 7. The Crown Bird from Mexico.  Albin II. 18. Rex Guineensis; Krohn-Vogel; nova dicitur avis.  Inter aviculas habemus regulos; quidem etiam haberemus regem? Edvvardo hæc avis apparet similis Picæ glandariæ; quod non dixerim; elegantissima est, rostro brevissimo, in capite condecorata plumis, qualibus se distinguunt Reguli africani. Albinus avem nec bene pinxit, nec recte descripsit, neque solum natale recte indigitavit; non enim mexicana est, sed guineensis, ex Africa septentrionali, versus regnum Congo, Capiti bonæ spei conterminum" (Klein 1750); "58. Rodzay V. Korończyk, (Tauraco,) szczegulnie tylko ten ieden iest gatunek. Ptak tu należący nadpospolicie pięknie się wydaie. Ma dziob krotki, i nosi na swey głowie takowe piora, iakich Afrykańscy Krolikowie zażywaią. Oyczyzną iego iest Gwinea, połnocna Afryka, i Krolestwo Kongo." (Kluk 1779); "Tauraco Kluk, Hist. [Historyi Naturalney], 2, 1779, p. 25. Type, by subsequent designation, Cuculus persa Linné. (Domaniewski, Acta Orn. Mus. Zool. Polon., 1, 1933, p. 26.)" (Peters 1940, IV, 3). 
Var. Touraco, Turaco.
Synon. Corythaix, Heuglinornis, Menelikornis, Neumannornis, Opoethus, Persa, Proturacopsis, Proturacus, Pseudogallirex, Pseudopoetus, Spelectoides, Spelectos, Turacus.

persa
L. Persa  Persian  < Persia  Persia (= Iran); alluding to the gaudy crested appearance of the turacos, known to early travellers as “Crown Birds” (cf. Gr. myth. Persa, an Oceanid and mother to Aetes, Circe and Pasiphae); "52. CUCULUS.  ...  Persa.  2.  C. cauda æquali, capite crista erecta, remigibus primoribus rubris.  Touraco. Alb. av. 2. p. 19. t. 19. Edw. av. 7. t. 7.  Habitat in Africa.  Antice viridis, postice subviolaceus, remigibus primoribus rubris; linea alba supra & infra palpebras sanguineas." (Linnaeus 1758) (Tauraco).

Persa
(syn. Tauraco Ϯ Guinea Turaco T. persa) Specific name Cuculus persa Linnaeus, 1758; "24. Turako.  Persa.  ...  Eine Art, die sonst unter die Kuckuke gesetzt wurde.   Der afrikanische Turako (Persa Turaco, mihi.  Cuculus Persa, Lin.)" (Bechstein 1805). According to the Richmond Card Index this genus was named for Persa, in Gr. myth. the daughter of Oceanus.

SUBSPECIES

Guinea Turaco (Buffon's)
SCI Name: Tauraco persa buffoni
buffoni / buffonianus / buffonii
George-Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) French naturalist, famed for his multi-volumned 'Histoire Naturelle' 1749-1788 ('Histoire naturelle des Oiseaux' 1770-1783), Director of the Jardin du Roi in Paris (syn. Cacatua sulphurea parvula, Chalybura, Circus (ex “Cayenne Ringtail” of Latham 1781), syn. Colaptes punctigula (ex “Grand pic rayé de Cayenne” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 719), syn. Melanocorypha calandra, subsp. Picumnus exilis (ex “Petit Pic de Cayenne” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 786, fig. 1), syn. Polioptila plumbea, syn. Stercorarius longicaudus, syn. Sturnia sinensis ("BUFFONIAN ORIOLE.  ...  DESCRIBED by the Count de Buffon" (Shaw 1809)), subsp. Tauraco persa (ex “Touraco Buffon” of Levaillant 1806)).

Guinea Turaco (Guinea)
SCI Name: Tauraco persa persa/zenkeri
TAURACO
(Musophagidae; Ϯ Guinea Turaco T. persa) According to SOED (1950), II, 2219,  Touraco is a native name in West Africa for the Guinea Turaco. Ray 1713, used “Tooracca” and “Tooraca” (e.g. “Tooracca Pigaly. Red Tooracca with a black head”), but these were for various Indian bulbuls, based on Telugu name Turaka-pigli-pitta for the Red-whiskered Bulbul. De Buffon 1783, coined “Tourocco”, combining French Tourterelle turtle dove, and Hocco curassow; Rüppell 1835 reported that Guguka was an Amharic name for a plantain-eater; and Gotch 1981, has "an imitation of the bird's cry."; "TOURACO.  THIS Bird is about the Bigness of a Magpye or Jay  ...  What genus of Birds to range this with, I cannot positively say; it climes not as Parrots do, nor doth it agree with them in any respect, except in the Position of the Toes; nor is its Bill any thing like a Woodpecker's, so that I think it nearest the Cuckow-kind.  Albin has figur'd this Bird, and calls it the Crown Bird from Mexico; tho' these Birds are indeed Africans, brought from Guinea, by the Way of the West Indies, to us" (Edwards 1743); "TAVRACO; regia avis, Edvv. I. p. 7. The Crown Bird from Mexico.  Albin II. 18. Rex Guineensis; Krohn-Vogel; nova dicitur avis.  Inter aviculas habemus regulos; quidem etiam haberemus regem? Edvvardo hæc avis apparet similis Picæ glandariæ; quod non dixerim; elegantissima est, rostro brevissimo, in capite condecorata plumis, qualibus se distinguunt Reguli africani. Albinus avem nec bene pinxit, nec recte descripsit, neque solum natale recte indigitavit; non enim mexicana est, sed guineensis, ex Africa septentrionali, versus regnum Congo, Capiti bonæ spei conterminum" (Klein 1750); "58. Rodzay V. Korończyk, (Tauraco,) szczegulnie tylko ten ieden iest gatunek. Ptak tu należący nadpospolicie pięknie się wydaie. Ma dziob krotki, i nosi na swey głowie takowe piora, iakich Afrykańscy Krolikowie zażywaią. Oyczyzną iego iest Gwinea, połnocna Afryka, i Krolestwo Kongo." (Kluk 1779); "Tauraco Kluk, Hist. [Historyi Naturalney], 2, 1779, p. 25. Type, by subsequent designation, Cuculus persa Linné. (Domaniewski, Acta Orn. Mus. Zool. Polon., 1, 1933, p. 26.)" (Peters 1940, IV, 3). 
Var. Touraco, Turaco.
Synon. Corythaix, Heuglinornis, Menelikornis, Neumannornis, Opoethus, Persa, Proturacopsis, Proturacus, Pseudogallirex, Pseudopoetus, Spelectoides, Spelectos, Turacus.