zolin.

Headword: 
zolin.
Principal English Translation: 

Montezuma Quail, a bird (see Hunn, attestations); also, a person's name (attested as male)

Orthographic Variants: 
çolin, çulin, Zolly, çolli, çoli, zolli, zoli
IPAspelling: 
soːlin
Alonso de Molina: 

zulin. codorniz.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 27v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

zozoltin. codornizes.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 25r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

ZŌL-IN pl: -TIN quail / codorniz (M) [(1)Tp.223].
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 348.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

abs. pl. çōçōltin.
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 215.

Attestations from sources in English: 

ZŌL-IN/ZŌL-LI, Montezuma Quail (Cyrtonix montezumae) [FC: 49 Çolin/Çolli]: “Its bill is pointed, ashen-green. Its breast is spotted with white; its wings are called chia-spotted. It is a runner…. It has eggs. When it lays eggs, when it hatches its young, it lays forty eggs. It hatches indeed fifty young. It food is dried grains of maize, chia, and xoxocoyolteuilotl.” Martin del Campo identified this bird as the Montezuma Quail. Though there are perhaps four species of quail that live near or in the Valley of Mexico, this species best fits the description. Of the local Central Mexican quail species, only the Montezuma is distinctly spotted. The Montezuma Quail is known to lay up to 12 eggs, but females may adopt neighbor’s broods. Males (TECU-ZOLI) and females (OHUATON) may be distinguished nomenclaturally.
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 11 – Earthly Things, no. 14, Part XII, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1963); Rafael Martín del Campo, “Ensayo de interpretación del Libro Undecimo de la Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España de Fray Bernardino de Sahagún – 11 Las Aves (1),” Anales del Instituto de Biología Tomo XI, Núm. 1 (México, D.F., 1940); and, with quotation selections, synthesis, and analysis here also appearing in E. S. Hunn, "The Aztec Fascination with Birds: Deciphering Sixteenth-Century Sources," unpublished manuscript, 2022, cited here with permission.

huítzilin , Yhuá Pizíetl Co pallí , Xochí ocotzotl. âhuí altic, totoch tin coamê, Zolimê; camochí ynin cenca míec quin míctiaya .y huá Yxpan qui hue n manaya ynin theoû Camaxtle = hummingbird, and tobacco incense, liquid nectar, rabbits, snakes, and quails— for they killed all these together and spread the offerings out before their god Camaxtli
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 37.

ytequitqui ytoca zolly = The tribute payer is named Çolin. (male) (Cuernavaca region, ca. 1540s)
The Book of Tributes: Early Sixteenth-Century Nahuatl Censuses from Morelos, ed. and transl. S. L. Cline, (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1993), 154–155. See also 156–157.
njman oc no ce tlacatl oalluah, çolin qujcotonjlia, in malli, in oaoantli, yn oconquechcoton çolin, conjaujlia yn ichimal malli: Auh in çolli, icampa comaiauj = Then still another man, [a priest] came out and cut the throat of a quail for the captive, him who was to be offered as a sacrifice; and when he had beheaded the quail, he raised [to the sun] the captive’s shield, and cast the quail away, behind him. (16th century, Mexico City)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 2—The Ceremonies, No. 14, Part III, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1951), 51.

Diego Çoli is mentioned in parish records of San Bartolomé Capulhuac (Acapulhuac, Capolohuac, etc.) of 1618. He married Lucia Tlaxuh.
Salt Lake City, Geneaological Library, microfilm 695644, 1612–1651. Harvested from the microfilm by Stephanie Wood.