Indian Nuthatch

SCI Name:  Sitta castanea
Protonym:  Sitta castanea TraitedOrn. livr.4 p.316
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Sittidae / Sitta
Taxonomy Code:  chbnut2
Type Locality:  no locality; Bengal, fide Ripley, 1961, Synopsis Birds India Pakistan, p. 559.
Author:  Lesson
Publish Year:  1830
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

SITTA
(Sittidae; Ϯ Eurasian Nuthatch S. europaea) Late Med. L. sitta (Turner 1544) nuthatch  < Gr. σιττη sittē  bird like a woodpecker mentioned by Aristotle, Callimachus, and Hesychius; "55. SITTA.  Rostrum subcultrato-conicum, rectum, porrectum: integerrimum, mandibula superiore obtusiuscula.  Lingua lacero-emarginata." (Linnaeus 1758); "Sitta Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, p. 115. Type, by monotypy, Sitta europaea Linnaeus." (Greenway in Peters 1967, XII, 125). Linnaeus's Sitta comprised a single species.
Var. Sitla, Sida.
Synon. Arctositta, Callisitta, Cyanositta,  Dendrophila, Homositta, Leptositta, Melositta, Mesositta, Micrositta, Oenositta, Orthorynchus, Poecilositta, Poliositta, Rupisitta, Sittella.

castanea
L. castaneus  chestnut-coloured, chestnut-brown  < castanea  chestnut  < Gr. καστανον kastanon  chestnut.
● ex Ardea ralloides Scopoli, 1769, and “Castaneous Heron” of Latham 1785 (syn. Ardeola ralloides).
● ex “Merle doré de Madagascar” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 539, fig. 2 (Philepitta).
● (Kuhl 1820) ex “Gobe-mouche huppé du Cap de Bonne Espérance” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 234, fig. 1 (syn. Terpsiphone paradisi).
● (Temminck 1835) ex “Tchitrec bé varié” of Levaillant 1805, pl. 146 (syn. Terpsiphone paradisi).
● ex “Pigeon de la Martinique” of Brisson 1760 (syn. Zenaida aurita).