Crimson Seedcracker

SCI Name:  Pyrenestes sanguineus
Protonym:  Pirenestes sanguineus BirdsW.Afr. 1 p.156
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Estrildidae / Pyrenestes
Taxonomy Code:  crisee1
Type Locality:  West Africa ; type, in Cambridge Museum, marked Senegal by Swainson.
Author:  Swainson
Publish Year:  1837
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

PYRENESTES
(Estrildidae; Ϯ Crimson Seedcracker P. sanguineus) Gr. πυρην purēn, πυρηνος purēnos  fruit-stone; -εστης -estēs  -eater  < εδω edō  to eat; "CRIMSON NUT-CRACKER.  Pirenestes sanguineus, SWAINS.  ...  It may safely be affirmed that this extraordinary bird has the thickest and most massive bill in the feathered creation. Both mandibles, indeed, are of an enormous size; but contrary to what we find in the generality of birds, the under one is even still more powerful than the upper. What are the nuts or seeds, the breaking of which requires such an amazing strength of bill, is perfectly unknown; but they must be of a stone-like hardness." (Swainson 1837 (Nat. Hist. Bds. Western Africa)); "Pyrenestes, Sw.  Bill enormous, perfectly conic; the two mandibles equal, or the lower somewhat thicker: upper mandible with an obsolete tooth at its base; the tip entire; the commissure straight. Wings and tail rounded; first quill very small, spurious.  The Old World.  P. sanguinea. W. Af. i. pl. 9.  frontalis. Part 5. No. 116" (Swainson 1837 (Nat. Hist. Classification Bds.)); "Pirenestes¹ Swainson, 1837, Birds W. Africa, 1, p. 156. Type, by monotypy, Pirenestes sanguineus Swainson.  ...  ¹ "Pirenestes" is a lapsus for Pyrenestes which was used five times in the text and in Swainson, 1837, Class. Birds, 2, p. 279 [sic = 277]." (Traylor in Peters 1968, XIV, 318).
Var. Pirenestes (original spelling).

sanguineum / sanguineus
L. sanguineus  bloody  < sanguis, sanguinis  blood.
● The types of this form were collected by Capt. N. B. Blood (see bloodi) (subsp. Cnemophilus macgregorii).