Blue-winged Teal

SCI Name:  Spatula discors
Protonym:  Anas discors Syst.Nat.ed.12 ed.12 p.205
Taxonomy:  Anseriformes / Anatidae / Spatula
Taxonomy Code:  buwtea
Type Locality:  North America = Virginia or Carolina.
Author:  Linnaeus
Publish Year:  1766
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

SPATULA
(Anatidae; Ϯ Northern Shoveler S. clypeata) L. spatula  spoon  < dim. spatha  spatula  < Gr. σπαθη spathē  spatula; "The Shoveler. Anas clypeata Germanis  ...  its Bill is three Inches long, coal black, much broader towards the Tip than at the Base, excavated like a Buckler, of a round Circumference" (Albin 1731); "[Anas] clypeata.  16. A[nas]. rostri extremo dilatato rotundato, ungue incurvo" (Linnaeus 1758); "71. Familie. Enten, Anas.  ...  152. Gattung.  Spatula.   388. clypeata." (Boie 1822); "Spatula Boie, Isis von Oken, 1822, col. 564. Type, by monotypy, Anas clypeata Linné." (Peters 1931, I, 169).
Synon. Adelonetta, Clypeata, Cyanopterus, Pterocyanea, Punanetta, Querquedula, Rhynchaspis, Rhynchoplatus.

discors
L. discors, discordis  discordant, at variance.
● ex “Querquedula americana variegata. White-face Teal” (= ♂) of Catesby 1731; ref. the variegated face pattern of the drake Blue-winged Teal. BOU 1915, has, “from its peculiar wing-markings.” Gruson 1972, says the epithet refers to the discordant flight-note, but the original description is based on Catesby, where no reference is made to the bird’s habits or calls (Spatula).
● "QUA BIRD, OR AMERICAN NIGHT HERON.  (Ardea discors, A. nycticorax, WILSON  ...  at intervals they utter a sort of recognition call, like the guttural sound of the syllable 'kwàh, uttered in so hollow and sepulchral a tone, as almost to resemble the retchings of a vomiting person." (Nuttall 1834) (syn. Nycticorax nycticorax hoactli).