Common Grackle

SCI Name:  Quiscalus quiscula
Protonym:  G.[racula] Quiscula Syst.Nat.ed.10 p.109
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Icteridae / Quiscalus
Taxonomy Code:  comgra
Type Locality:  'in America septentrionali'' ; coast of South Carolina designated by Wayne, 1918, Auk, 35, p. 440.
Author:  Linnaeus
Publish Year:  1758
IUCN Status:  Near Threatened

DEFINITIONS

QUISCALUS
(Icteridae; Ϯ Common Grackle Q. quiscula) Specific name Gracula quiscula Linnaeus, 1758; "98. QUISCALE, Quiscalus.  Gracula, Corvus, Lin. Gm. Lath.  Bec glabre et comprimé à la base, droit, entier, à bords anguleux et fléchis en dedans, incliné vers le bout; mandibule supérieure prolongée en pointe dans les plumes du front.   Esp. Gracula quiscala et Corvus mexicanus, Lin. Gm. Lath." (Vieillot 1816); "Quiscalus Vieillot, 1816, Analyse, p. 36. Type, by subsequent designation (G. R. Gray, 1840, List. Genera Birds, ed. 1, p. 41), Gr.[acula] quiscala [= quiscula] Linnaeus." (Blake in Peters 1968, XIV, 187).
Var. Quiscalis, Quisculus, Quisqualus, Quisqualis, Qviscalus.
Synon. Cassidix, Chalcophanes, Holoquiscalus, Megaquiscalus, Quiscala, Scaphidurus, Scaphura.

quiscula
Carib word Quisqueya mother of all lands, for the island of Hispaniola (Philpott 1998); "Oriolus, L.  Cassicus, Vieill.  ...  Peruanis hispanicis audit Oripindulo, Indies est Queche." (Poeppig 1831); L. quis  what; qualis  of what kind). Newton in Coues 1882, remarked, “I cannot find this word or any thing like it in any older author ... [Linnaeus] did not invent names. From his printing the word...with a capital initial letter, it is obvious that he regarded it as a substantive, and I should think he must have found it in some book of travels as the local name of a bird. The word seems to me Spanish or quasi-Spanish – say Creole – and the regular Castilian quisquilla, which dictionaries explain to be a trifling dispute, suggests a meaning, especially when one reads of the noisy and fussy bickerings of your Boat-tails.” Later, however (Newton & Gadow 1896), he believed it to be, “from the Low Latin Quiscula or Quisquilla, which like Quaquila are supposed to be renderings of Quagila or some such word, and to mean Quail.” Capponi 1979, gives L. quacula, quaquara, and quaquila as names for the quail, but indicates that quisquilla has been variously identified as a quail, a lapwing, or a crake (cf. "Coturnix ... La femelle a un cri que tout le monde connoît cascailla, cascailla, cascailla, qu'elle répète plusieurs fois de suite pour rappeller son mâle" (Bonnaterre 1823)); "Devant tant d'incertitude, on pourrait tout aussi bien y voir une onomatopée de son chant, traduit en anglais par 'koguba-leek'." (Cabard & Chauvet 2003); "50. GRACULA.  ...  Quiscula.  6. G. nigro-violaceo, cauda subcuneiformi.  Monedula purpurea. Catesb. car. I. p. 12. t. 12.  Merops niger, viridi-argentea. Brown. jam. 476.  Habitat in America septentrionali.  Virginianus invisa avis; aqua & igne interdicta, sed injuste." (Linnaeus 1758) (Quiscalus).

SUBSPECIES

Common Grackle (Purple)
SCI Name: Quiscalus quiscula quiscula/stonei
QUISCALUS
(Icteridae; Ϯ Common Grackle Q. quiscula) Specific name Gracula quiscula Linnaeus, 1758; "98. QUISCALE, Quiscalus.  Gracula, Corvus, Lin. Gm. Lath.  Bec glabre et comprimé à la base, droit, entier, à bords anguleux et fléchis en dedans, incliné vers le bout; mandibule supérieure prolongée en pointe dans les plumes du front.   Esp. Gracula quiscala et Corvus mexicanus, Lin. Gm. Lath." (Vieillot 1816); "Quiscalus Vieillot, 1816, Analyse, p. 36. Type, by subsequent designation (G. R. Gray, 1840, List. Genera Birds, ed. 1, p. 41), Gr.[acula] quiscala [= quiscula] Linnaeus." (Blake in Peters 1968, XIV, 187).
Var. Quiscalis, Quisculus, Quisqualus, Quisqualis, Qviscalus.
Synon. Cassidix, Chalcophanes, Holoquiscalus, Megaquiscalus, Quiscala, Scaphidurus, Scaphura.

Common Grackle (Bronzed)
SCI Name: Quiscalus quiscula versicolor
versicolor
L. versicolor, versicoloris  of various colours  < vertere  to change; color, coloris  colour.
● ex “Perroquet de La Havane” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 360 (Amazona).
● ex “Barbu des Maynas” of Brisson 1760 (Eubucco).
● ex “Perruche à gorge tachetée de Cayenne” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 144, “Perruche, no. 2” of Fermin 1769, “Perruche à gorge variée” of de Buffon 1770-1783, and “Wave-breasted Parrakeet” of Latham 1781 (syn. Pyrrhura picta).
● ex "Pato pico de tres colores" of de Azara 1802-1805, no. 440 (Spatula).
● ex “Variable Crow” of Latham 1801 (Strepera).