McCown's Longspur

SCI Name:  Rhynchophanes mccownii
Protonym:  Plectrophanes mccownii Ann.Lyc.Nat.Hist.N.Y. 5(1852) p.122
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Calcariidae / Rhynchophanes
Taxonomy Code:  mcclon
Type Locality:  high prairies of western Texas.
Author:  Lawrence
Publish Year:  1851
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

RHYNCHOPHANES
(Calcariidae; Ϯ McCown's Longspur R. mccownii) Gr. ῥυγχος rhunkhos  bill;
-φανης -phanēs  showing  < φαινω phainō  to show; "McCown's Longspur  ...  Note also that bill is stouter and thicker based than bills of other longspurs." (National Geographic 1999); "C.  RHYNCHOPHANES, Baird.¹   —Bill very large at the base; hind claw shorter. No rufous nuchal collar.  Crown black; shoulders chestnut; beneath white, with a black pectoral crescent.   P. maccownii.    The essential characters of the genus [Plectrophanes], as usually understood, consist in the very long and pointed wings; the moderate, nearly even tail; the very long, little curved, hind claw. Whether the elongated and nearly straight hind claw be not an arbitrary character embracing species otherwise dissimilar I do not pretend to decide. Bonaparte considers the P. maccownii, so totally different from the other species, as to warrant a place in a different family.   ...   ¹ It is my impression that Bonaparte has proposed a name for this section in removing it to another family, but I am unable to find it." (Baird 1858); "Rhynchophanes Baird, 1859 [= 1858], in Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence, Rept. Expl. Surv. R. R. Pacific, 9, pp. xx, xxxviii, 432. Type, by monotypy, Plectrophanes maccownii (sic) Lawrence." (Paynter in Peters 1970, XIII, 36).

mccownii
Maj.-Gen. John Porter McCown (1815-1879) US Army, naturalist, collector (Rhynchophanes).