The Key to Scientific Names
- TANYSIPTERA
(Alcedinidae; Ϯ Common Paradise Kingfisher T. galatea nais) Gr. τανυσιπτερος tanusipteros long-feathered < τανυ- tanu- long- < τεινω teinō to stretch;
-πτερος -pteros -feathered < πτερον pteron feather; “That singular and beautiful species of the Linnean Alcedo, the Ternate Kingsfisher*, shows the equal approximation of that genus to Galbula, and a deviation from its own type. Its tail deserts the shortened character of that of the true Kingsfisher, and assumes the lengthened and graduated conformation of the same member in the Paradise Jacamar, and the other long-tailed Galbulæ. ... *This beautiful species exhibits so strong a deviation from the Halcyonidæ in general, that it requires a separate station in the family: and I take this opportunity of characterizing the group as follows, under the generic title of TANYSIPTERA. Rostrum subbreve, subcrassum, rectum, acutum, naribus ovalibus. Cauda gradata, rectricibus duabus longissimis. DEA. ... Alcedo Dea. Linn. Syst. i. p. 181. 13. Ispida Ternatana. Briss. vol. iv. p. 525. t. 40. f.2. Martin-Pêcheur de Ternate. Buff. Pl. Enl. 116. The specimens of this species which are brought to Europe are generally deprived of their wings and legs. I am therefore prevented from referring to those members in my generic description.” (Vigors 1825); "Tanysiptera Vigors, 1825, Trans. Linnean Soc. London, XIV (3), p. 433. Type, by monotypy, Alcedo dea Linnaeus, 1766 (not of Linnaeus, 1758) = Tanysiptera nais G. Gray, 1861." (JAJ 2022).
Var. Tanysyptera.
Synon. Edquista, Uralcyon.
