Plain Mountain-Finch

SCI Name:  Leucosticte nemoricola
Protonym:  Fringilauda nemoricola As.Res. 19 p.158
Taxonomy:  Passeriformes / Fringillidae / Leucosticte
Taxonomy Code:  plmfin1
Type Locality:  central and northern Nepal.
Author:  Hodgson
Publish Year:  1836
IUCN Status:  Least Concern

DEFINITIONS

LEUCOSTICTE
(Fringillidae; Ϯ Grey-crowned Rosy Finch L. tephrocotis) Gr. λευκοστικτος leukostiktos  white-speckled, grizzled  < λευκος leukos  white; στικτος stiktos  spotted  < στιζω stizō  to tattoo; "[79.] 1. LINARIA (LEUCOSTICTE) TEPHROCOTIS. (Swainson.)  Grey-crowned Linnet.   SUB-FAMILY, Coccothraustinæ, SWAINS.  Genus, Linaria, AUCT.  Sub-genus, Leucosticte, Sw.   CH. SP.  LINARIA (Leucosticte) TEPHROCOTIS, castanea, vertice nigrescenti, occipite cinereo-albescenti, tectricibus alarum minoribus tectricibusquæ caudæ et hypochondriis apicibus roseis.  ...  This new and striking species, of which only a single specimen was obtained, is obviously an aberrant form in the genus Linaria; but as we know not, at present, the remaining types, its more immediate affinities must remain unexplained. The vertical breadth of the bill and the arched commissure bring it into comparison with the Bullfinches." (Swainson 1831); "Leucosticte Swainson, 1832, in Swainson and Richardson, Fauna Bor. Amer., 2 (1831), p. 265. Type, by monotypy, Linaria (Leucosticte) tephrocotis Swainson." (Howell in Peters 1968, XIV, 257).  
Var. Tephrocotis.
Synon. Fringalauda, Hypolia.

leucosticte / leucostictos / leucostictus
Gr. λευκοστικτος leukostiktos  white-speckled, white-spotted  < λευκος leukos  white; στικτος stiktos  spotted  < στιζω stizō  to tattoo.

nemoricola / nemoricolus
L. nemus, nemoris  forest, wood  < Gr. νεμος nemos  pasture, glade  < νεμω nemō  to drive to pasture; -cola  dweller  < colere  to inhabit.

Nemoricola
● (syn. Dendronanthus Ϯ Forest Wagtail D. indicus) L. nemus, nemoris  forest, wood  < Gr. nemos  grove, pasture  < nemō  to drive to pasture; -cola  dweller  < colere to inhabit; "No. 130. This remarkable species, which is the type of my genus Nemoricola, is the Bergeronette grise des Indes of Sonnerat, upon which Latham founds his Motacilla indica" (Blyth 1844).
● (syn. Gallinago Ϯ Wood Snipe G. nemoricola) Specific name Gallinago nemoricola Hodgson, 1836; "Genus GALLINAGO, Auctorum.  Species, new: Nemoricola, nobis.  ...  I have set it down in my note book, as the type of a new genus or subgenus, under the style of Nemoricola Nipalensis, but I forbear, for the present, from so naming it" (Hodgson 1837).

SUBSPECIES

Plain Mountain-Finch (altaica)
SCI Name: Leucosticte nemoricola altaica
altaiana / altaica / altaicus / altaiensis
Altai Mts., Central Asia, on the borders of Kazakhstan, western Mongolia and north-western China.

Plain Mountain-Finch (nemoricola)
SCI Name: Leucosticte nemoricola nemoricola
nemoricola / nemoricolus
L. nemus, nemoris  forest, wood  < Gr. νεμος nemos  pasture, glade  < νεμω nemō  to drive to pasture; -cola  dweller  < colere  to inhabit.