Slate-colored Grosbeak

SCI Name:  Saltator grossus
Protonym:  Loxia grossa Syst.Nat.ed.12 ed.12 p.307
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Thraupidae / Saltator
Taxonomy Code:  slcgro1
Type Locality:  America; restricted to Cayenne by Berlepsch and Hartert, 1902, Novit. Zool., 9, p. 24.
Author:  Linnaeus
Publish Year:  1766
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

SALTATOR
(Thraupidae; Ϯ Buff-throated Saltator S. maximus) L. saltator, saltatoris  dancer  < saltare  to dance (cf. Tupí name Tangara  dancer, one who turns and skips, for the manakins and various colourful finch-like birds (see Tangara)); "66. HABIA, de Azara. Saltator. Tanagra, Lin. Gm. Lath.  Bec épais à la base, court, robuste, convexe en dessus, un peu comprimé par les côtés, échancré vers le bout; mandibule supérieure un peu fléchie en arc et couvrant les bords de l'inférieure.   Esp. Grand Tangara, Buff." (Vieillot 1816) ; "Saltator Vieillot, 1816, Analyse, p. 32. Type, by monotypy, "Grand Tanagra" Buffon = Tanagra maxima Müller." (Paynter in Peters 1970, XIII, 228). The saltators and their allies have also been placed with the finches Fringillidae, and the cardinals Cardinalidae, or treated as a separate family Saltatoridae.
Var. Salator, Sallator, Sattator, Staltator.
Synon. Cissurus, Pitylus, Pyrorhamphus, Saltatricula, Stelgidostomus.

saltator
L. saltator, saltatoris  dancer  < saltare  to dance  < salire  to jump.
● ex "Le Pavaneur" of Levaillant 1801-1804 (French pavaneur  strutter); "Gattung Calamoherpe.  ...  1. saltator Vaill. Afr. pl. 122. fig. 1. 2." (Boie 1828) (syn. Acrocephalus schoenobaenus).
● ex “Pingoin Sauteur” of de Bougainville 1771 (French sauteur  jumper) (syn. Eudyptes chrysocome) (see Chrysocoma).
● "56. SAXICOLA SALTATOR  ...  il va ordinairement par paires, et sautille continuellement; il se place volontiers sur les pointes de rochers, et là, il s'élève perpendiculairement en agitant fortement ses ailes, et faisant entendre un zri, zri, zri, très sonore; posé, il a un petit gazouillement très agréable" (Ménétries 1832) (French sautiller  to hop) (syn. Oenanthe hispanica melanoleuca).
● "Not unfrequently we are startled by a shrill scream in some lonely place, and out rushes the Hopping Dick, jumping with rapidity across the road, almost close to our horse's feet.  ...  At the break of day, if we pass along a wooded mountain road  ...  we see the Hopping Dicks bounding singly along the ground in every part  ...  many of these Merles were gliding from one thicket to another, and dashing across the road with that bounding run from which they derive their soubriquet of Hopping Dick  ...  Ouzel, which I would call Merula Saltator, as this name preserves his distinctive soubriquet of Hopping Dick, and refers to his characteristic length of legs, both at the tarsus and the thighs." (Gosse & Hill 1847) (syn. Turdus aurantius).

grossus
Late L. grossus  thick, stout, massive.
● "109. LOXIA.  ...  grossa.  44. L. cano-cærulescens, jugulo rectricibusque atris, gula alba, rostro rubro.  Coccothraustes americana cærulea. Briss. app. 89. t. 5. f. 1.  Habitat in America.  Magnitudo L. Cardinalis." (Linnaeus 1766) (Pitylus).

SUBSPECIES

Slate-colored Grosbeak (saturatus)
SCI Name: Saltator grossus saturatus
saturatum / saturatus
L. saturatus  richly coloured, darker coloured, intensely coloured  < satur, satura  rich, copious  < satis  enough.
● “In my description of this Cuckoo [Cuculus micropterus] ...I considered certain dark ash-coloured specimens to be merely the old birds of the species ...Mr Hodgson, however, thinks differently, having lately forwarded similar examples by the designation C. saturatus” (Blyth 1843) (Cuculus).

Slate-colored Grosbeak (grossus)
SCI Name: Saltator grossus grossus
grossus
Late L. grossus  thick, stout, massive.
● "109. LOXIA.  ...  grossa.  44. L. cano-cærulescens, jugulo rectricibusque atris, gula alba, rostro rubro.  Coccothraustes americana cærulea. Briss. app. 89. t. 5. f. 1.  Habitat in America.  Magnitudo L. Cardinalis." (Linnaeus 1766) (Pitylus).