Little chachalaca

The little chachalaca (Ortalis motmot) is a bird in the family Cracidae that is found in the northern part of South America. It grows to about 38 cm (15 inches) in length and weighs 380 to 620 g (13 to 22 oz).[2] This bird lives mostly in trees. It is found in northern Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana and Venezuela. It may also be found in the far eastern regions of Colombia.

Little chachalaca
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Cracidae
Genus: Ortalis
Species:
O. motmot
Binomial name
Ortalis motmot
(Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms

Phasianus motmot Linnaeus, 1766

Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the little chachalaca in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in French Guiana. He used the French name Le faisan de la Guiane and the Latin Phasianus guianensis.[3] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.[4] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.[4] One of these was the little chachalaca. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Phasianus motmot and cited Brisson's work.[5] The specific name had been used by the Dutch zoologist Albertus Seba in 1734 when he had misapplied the Aztec name motmot to a chachalaca.[6][7] The species is now placed in the genus Ortalis that was introduced by the German naturalist Blasius Merrem in 1786 with the little chachalaca as the type species.[8][9]

The little chachalaca was formerly considered conspecific with the chestnut-headed chachalaca (Ortalis ruficeps).[9][10] Some taxonomic authorities still consider it conspecific, including the American Ornithological Society, though a proposal is pending there.[11]

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Ortalis motmot". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), ISBN 978-0-8493-4258-5.
  3. Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés (in French and Latin). Volume 1. Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. pp. 270–271, Plate 26 fig 2. The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen.
  4. Allen, J.A. (1910). "Collation of Brisson's genera of birds with those of Linnaeus". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 28: 317–335.
  5. Linnaeus, Carl (1766). Systema naturae : per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Volume 1, Part 1 (12th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 271.
  6. Seba, Albertus (1734). Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio – Naaukeurige beschryving van het schatryke kabinet der voornaamste seldzaamheden der natuur (in Latin and French). Volume 1. p. 103, Plate 67 fig 2.
  7. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  8. Merrem, Blasius (1786). Avium rariorum et minus cognitarum : icones et descriptiones collectae et e germanicis latinae factae (in Latin). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Ex Bibliopolio Io. Godofr. Mülleriano. p. 40.
  9. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (2020). "Pheasants, partridges, francolins". IOC World Bird List Version 10.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  10. Tomotani, B.M.; Silveira, L.F.; Pacheco, J.F. (2020). "Morphology and vocalization support specific status of the chestnut-headed chachalaca, Ortalis motmot ruficeps (Wagler, 1830) (Aves; Galliformes; Cracidae)". Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia. 60: e20206012–e20206012. doi:10.11606/1807-0205/2020.60.12.
  11. "Proposal Tracking Chart". AOS South American Classification Committee. October 24, 2020. Retrieved November 28, 2020.
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