Pale-winged Starling

SCI Name:  Onychognathus nabouroup
Protonym:  Sturnus nabouroup TraitedOrn.[Daudin] 2 p.308
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Sturnidae / Onychognathus
Taxonomy Code:  pawsta1
Type Locality:  Kamies Mountains, Little Namaqualand.
Author:  Daudin
Publish Year:  1800
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

ONYCHOGNATHUS
(Sturnidae; Ϯ Chestnut-winged Starling O. fulgidus) Gr. ονυξ onux, ονυχος onukhos  claw, nail; γναθος gnathos  jaw; "1. Onychognathus, Nob., n. gen.  Familia Sturnidæ, subfam.— Ptilonorhynchinæ, Gray.   Char. gen. rostrum (pl. 14, fig. 2). Capite longius, compressum, grypanium, aduncum, culmine arcuato, basi applanato-rotundato; apice acuto elongato uncinato.  Cauda valde gradata, elongata; rectrices angustæ debiles, apice rotundatæ.  Alæ mediocres, remige prima spuria; tertia, quarta et quinta cæteris longioribus, æqualibus; remiges tertiariæ (pl. 14, f. 3) et tectrices alæ majores structuram exhibent valde extraordinariam; pogonium externum fascia longitudinali holosericea in duo quasi dimidia dispertitur, quorum unum superius (sæpo proximum) ordinarium, alterum inferius decompositum, laxum, quasi fimbriatum dependet.  Pedes robusti, breves, digito interno et externo æqualibus; unguibus mediocribus, validis.   O. fulgidus, Nob.   ...   Habitat: île Saint-Thomé, golfe de Guinée." (Hartlaub 1849); "Onychognathus Hartlaub, 1849, Rev. Mag. Zool. (Paris), p. 494. Type, by monotypy, Onychognathus fulgidus Hartlaub." (Amadon in Peters 1962, XV, 87).   
Var. Onychoramphus (Gr. ραμφος rhamphos  bill), Onychorhamphus, Onicognathus, Onycognathus, Onychognatus.   
Synon. Amydrus, Cinnamopterus, Galeopsar, Hagiopsar, Nabouroupus, Oligomydrus, Pilorhinus, Ptilonorhynchus, Pyrrhocheira.

nabouroup
Namaqua name Nabouroup for the Pale-winged Starling; ex “Nabouroup” of Levaillant 1801, pl. 91: "Je lui ai conservé le nom de Nabouroup qui est celui pour lequel les Namaquois le désignent". This is one of the many names coined originally in Levaillant 1799–1808. The naturalist François Levaillant, like the Comte de Buffon, was of the French school that rejected the Linnaean binominal system. However, unlike de Buffon, to whom he took an aversion, Levaillant was an adventurer and explorer who described his birds at first hand and not from cabinet specimens, although he was not above fabricating new species to sell his work! In his books he gave his discoveries coined French names or names selected from the local native vernacular, and it was left to later authors to perpetuate them in binominal nomenclature (Onychognathus).