Eleazar Albin in Don Saltero&#39;s coffee-house in 1736: how the Jamaican mango hummingbird got its name, <I>Trochilus mango</I>

Abstract

The Jamaican hummingbird that Eleazar Albin called the "Mango Bird", which was the basis for the Linnean name Trochilus mango, is shown likely to have been based on a specimen he saw in Don Saltero&#39;s Coffee-House in Chelsea, London, in 1736, that was probably a gift of Sir Hans Sloane. The name "mango-bird" has long been in wide use for certain south Asian orioles, especially the Indian Golden Oriole (Oriolus kundoo), at least one specimen and nest of which was also on display in Don Saltero&#39;s. Albin&#39;s text concerning two species of Jamaican hummingbirds contains numerous dubious or erroneous statements and his use of "Mango Bird" for the hummingbird was most likely a lapsus confounding another bird he had heard of at Don Saltero&#39;s, particularly in light of the fact that the mango tree (Mangifera indica) was not introduced into Jamaica until 1782. Thus, the modern use of the word "mango" in connection with an entire group of hummingbirds arose through a purely fortuitous mistake and the birds never had an...