Jamaican Spindalis

SCI Name:  Spindalis nigricephala
Protonym:  Tanagra nigricephala Edinb.NewPhilos.J. 19 p.213
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Spindalidae / Spindalis
Taxonomy Code:  jamspi
Type Locality:  West India Islands [= Jamaica] .
Author:  Jameson
Publish Year:  1835
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

SPINDALIS
(Spindalidae; Ϯ Jamaican Spindalis S. nigricephala) Gr. σπινδαλος spindalos or πινδαλος pindalos  unknown Indian bird, variously identified but said to be akin to ατταγας attagas. These mainly Antillean birds were formerly known as stripe-headed tanagers; "GENUS SPINDALIS, JARD. & SELBY.   CHAR. GEN.—Rostrum subbreve, validum, ad basin trigonum, apice compresso, emarginato, culmine arcuato, tomiis subsinuatis, in medio rostri introrsum inclinantibus; naribus nudis, rotundatis. Alæ mediocres, subrotundæ, remige 1^mo. 2^do. brevioribus, 3^tio. 4^toque æqualibus, longissimis. Cauda mediocris, æqualis. Pedes breviusculi subfortes.    SPINDALIS BILINEATUS, JARD. & SELBY.  ....  from Jamaica,  in the interior and mountainous part of which island they were procured by our correspondent. Judging from the general characters the bird presents, it appears to belong to the Tanagrinæ or Tanagers (the sub-typical or dentirostral division of the Fringillidæ), a group inhabiting the islands and continent of America; but as it exhibits characters different from any of the established generic divisions belonging to this sub-family, we have thought it necessary to give its peculiar characters." (Jardine & Selby 1837); "Spindalis Jardine and Selby, 1837, Illus. Ornith., new ser., 4, pl. 9. Type, by monotypy, Spindalis bilineatus Jardine and Selby = Tanagra nigricephala Jameson." (Storer in Peters 1970, XIII, 316).
Var. Spindasis (genus Spinus Koch, 1816, siskin; Gr. δασος dasos  thicket).
Synon. Spizampelis.

nigricephala
L. niger black; Gr. -κεφαλος -kephalos -headed < κεφαλη kephalē head.