The Identity of Loxia flamengo SPARRMAN 1786 (1 Viewer)

[Björn Bergenholtz]

While dealing with Gustaf von Carlson, and Sparrman's Museum Carlsonianum, in thread Gustaf von Carlson, and "his" Birds (here) I noticed an erroneous Identification in today's Key. This time regarding ...

flamengo as in:
• the invalid "Loxia Flamengo" SPARRMAN 1786 (here, with the Plate here)

In today's Key explained as:

flamengo
Spanish name Flamenco for the flamingo (cf. Portuguese Flamengo) (i. e. white and pink, after Flemish traders with their pale skins and rosy cheeks) (syn. Pinicola enucleator leucistic variety).

... which I think is simply wrong (re. its Identity, that is). As far as I can tell, it's instead a leucistic (Common/Eurasian) Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula.


See Illuminerade Figurer till Skandinaviens Fauna (1832), by the Swedish Ornithologist Sven Nilsson (here):

Anm. I SPARRMANS Museum Carlsonianum tab. 17 förekommer en fogel, som SPARRMAN ansåg utgöra en egen Svensk art af detta slägte, då het Loxia; denna förmenta fogelart kallade han Loxia Flamengo. GMELIN och LATHAM upptogo äfven denna fogel, som egen art. Då jag 1815 skref Ornithologia Svecica hade jag haft tillfälle att i Paykullska samlingen på Vallox-Säby se originalet till nämnde figur; jag fann genast, att det var Pyrrhula vulgaris, som undergått betydlig färgförändring. Ungefär vid samma tid fick jag del af et bref från Assessor LINDROTH till Professor A. J. RETZIUS, hvaraf upplyses att Loxia Flamengo varit en vanlig Domherre, som Doctor EKLUND länge haft i bur, och som der, efter en ruggning, fått den hvita och rosenröda färgen, med hvilken han dog och blef uppställd i Presidenten CARLSSONS [sic] samling, der han af SPARRMAN beskrefs under det anförda namnet. Detta har jag i korthet nämnt redan i Ornithol. SveciaI, p. 130 not. — Icke desto mindre fick jag sex år derefter, i en av de mest begagnade handböcker i Ornithologien, läsa följande försäkring: ”La Loxia ”Flamengo de SPARRMAN, Mus. Carl. t. 17, n’est point une varieté albine du Bouvreuil commun; mais ce prétendu Loxia Flamengo est une varieté albine de mon Bouvreuil durbec.” (Corythus Enucleator.) — Då original-exemplaret ännu finnes i behåll och står här framför mig, har jag trott mig böra, genom en ny och pålitlig figur deraf, påtagligt ådagalägga, till hvilken art Loxia Flamengo i sjelfa verket hörer. Ehuru jag alldeles icke anser vanliga albinos varieteter ha det interesse, att jag i detta planschverk skulle vilja införa många af dem t. ex. sådana som hvita sparfvar, svalor, kajor o. s. v. emedan de ändamålslöst skulle upptaga platsen för långt vigtigare figurer; så tror jag mig dock böra införa figuren af denna fogel, dels derföre att han länge blifvit utsedd för egen art, och dels derföre att han företer åskilliga och intressanta fenomener.

Planchen 70. (Varietet af Pyrrhula vulgaris målad efter originalet till Loxia Flamengo SPARRM.)

Which (roughly), in English, would be something like:

Remark. In SPARRMANS Museum Carlsonianum, on tabula/Plate 17 occurs a bird, which SPARRMAN considered as a Swedish full species in this Genus, then [at that time] in Loxia; this aforesaid species of Bird he called Loxia Flamengo. Also GMELIN and LATHAM included this bird as a species of its own. When I, in 1815 wrote Ornithologia Svecica, I had the opportunity to see the Original for the mentioned figure, in Paykull' collection at Vallox-Säby [after the Death of Gustaf von Carlson parts of his collection were incorporated in the collection of Paykull]; I immediately found it to be Pyrrhula vulgaris [a today dated name for Pyrrhula pyrrhula], which had gone through a significant change of colour. About the same time I was allowed to take part of a letter from Assessor LINDROTH to Professor A. J. RETZIUS, in which we were informed that Loxia Flamengo was a common Bullfinch, which Doctor EKLUND for long have had in a cage, in which it, after a moult, got the white and rosy colour, in which he died, and was exhibited in Chairman CARLSSONS [sic – error (Carlsson, with double-s, is the far more common version in Sweden, but here it should instead have been written with single-s, as Carlson's)] collection, from where SPARRMAN described him under the aforementioned name. This I have already mentioned, briefly, in Ornithol. Svecia I, p. 130 note. [Ornithologia Svecica, = here; Note/OBSERV. bottom of page] — Nevertheless did I, six years later, in one of the most generally used Handbooks/Manuals in Ornithology, read the following affirmation: ”La Loxia ”Flamengo de SPARRMAN, Mus. Carl. t. 17, n’est point une ”varieté albine du Bouvreuil commun; mais ce prétendu Loxia Flamengo est une varieté albine de mon Bouvreuil durbec. ” (Corythus Enucleator.) — As the Original specimen still exist, and stands here right in front of me, I believe I ought to, through a new and reliable figure [depiction], evidently establish [i.e. in the sense 'once and for all'], to which species Loxia Flamengo actually belongs. Although I don't find common varieties like albinos, such as white Sparrows, Swallows, Jackdaws, etc., etc., interesting enough to be included in this Volume of Prints/Pictures, in which they would only occupy space from far more important figures, yet I think I ought to insert the figure of this bird, partly because it long has been considered a species of his own, and partly because he shows several interesting phenomena.

Plate 70. (Variety of Pyrrhula vulgaris painted from/after the original of Loxia Flamengo SPARRM.)

Plate 70 = here, alt. here, here or here (drawn, and painted, in watercolour, by Nils Petter Åkerberg).



Also see Sundevall's comment (from 1857) here (in Latin):


Enjoy!

Björn

PS. This particular taxon/specimen was earlier (back in 2017) commented (even if only briefly, as a mere sidetrack) in the Bird Paleontology subforum, in thread Colaptes oceanicus (here).

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

If this also concern the scientific name flamingo I cannot tell, but I would assume so ...

In today's Key:

flamingo
Portuguese flamingo or flamengo Fleming, from Flanders (an allusion to the pale skins and rosy cheeks of northern merchants, reflecting the plumage of this finch). The name was, of course, originally applied to the similarly garbed flamingos Phoenicopterus (syn. Pinicola enucleator).

See for example A history of the birds of Europe [including all the species inhabiting the western palaearctic region], by Dresser (here), where it's (erroneously) listed, as such, among the synonyms of the latter species (but still in reference to the same Pl.17, in Sparrman's Museum Carlsonianum).

Also compare with Bechstein's Gemeinnützige Naturgeschichte Deutschlands nach allen drey Reichen ... (Vol. 4, 1793-95, here, alt. here), and with Latham's Supplement to the General Synopsis of Birds, 1787 (here), or ditto's A General History of Birds, Vol. 5, 1822 (here).

/B

PS. This taxon is, of course, not to confuse with the Flamingo itself Phoenicopterus ruber LINNAEUS 1758 (here) 🦩