Rhinoceros Auklet

SCI Name:  Cerorhinca monocerata
Protonym:  Alca monocerata Zoogr.Rosso-Asiat. 2 p.362
Taxonomy:  Charadriiformes / Alcidae / Cerorhinca
Taxonomy Code:  rhiauk
Type Locality:  Cape St. Elias and Kodiak Island.
Author:  Pallas
Publish Year:  1811
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

CERORHINCA
(Alcidae; Ϯ Rhinoceros Auklet C. monocerata) Specific name Phaleris cerorhynca Bonaparte, 1827 (= syn. Cerorhinca monocerata): "Hence we have been induced to apply to it a specific name, which being compounded from the Greek might, with propriety, become generic."; "CERORHINCA.  Phaleris, Nob. Suppl. Am. Gen. in Zool. Journ. (29)  BILL shorter than the head, much compressed throughout, much longer than high; perfectly smooth, base not much feathered, covered by a callous membrane, surmounted by a long, obtuse, horn-like process, (rising perpendicularly on the base of the bill); both mandibles curved and slightly notched at tip; lower strongly angular beneath, not truncated, acute, from the angle to the base each side inferiorly a very deep, linear, inconspicuous groove; edges sharp, those of the upper mandible much dilated, of the lower remarkably bent in at base: nostrils situated beneath the callous cere, marginal, long; linear, pervious, very apparent, half closed by the membrane; tongue short, slender, depressed, and bifid at tip?  Head globular, orbits feathered; eyes small; neck short, stout: body plump.  ... Well entitled to generic distinction. Not more allied to any other genus of Pygopodes than they are to each other, intermediate between Phaleris and Mormon, but more closely related to the latter by the sheath covering the bill, which differs in form only, and the great depression of that member.  377. CERORHINCA OCCIDENTALIS, Nobis." (Bonaparte 1828); "Cerorhinca Bonaparte, Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N. Y., 2, 1828, p. 427. Type, by monotypy, Cerorhinca occidentalis Bonaparte = Alca monocerata Pallas." (Peters, 1934, II, p. 358).
Var. Ceratorhina (Gr. κερας keras, κερατος keratos  horn; ῥις rhis, ῥινος rhinos nose, nostrils), Cerorhina (Gr. κερας keras, κερως kerōs  horn), Ceratorrhina, Ceratorhyncha (Gr. ῥυγχος rhunkhos  bill), Ceratorynchus, Cerorhincha, Cerorhyncha, Cerorhynca.
Synon. Chimerina.

monocerata / monoceros
Gr. μονος monos  single; κερας keras, κερως kerōs or κερατος  keratos  horn.
● ex “Calao Unicorne” of Levaillant 1801 (syn. Anthracoceros coronatus).