Subspecies Cacatua (Cacatua) galerita galerita (Latham, 1790)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Psittacus galeritus Latham, J. 1790. Index ornithologicus, sive Systema Ornithologiae; complectens avium divisionem in classes, ordines, genera, species, ipsarumque varietates: adjectis synonymis, locis, descriptionibus, &c. London : Leigh & Sotheby Vol. 1 & 2 xviii 920 pp. [109].

  Type data:

   Neotype AM 0.64742 adult, Turramurra, Sydney, NSW
  Comment: also as incorrect subsequent spelling, galeratus by Kerr (1792).

  Subsequent designation references:

  Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [90].
• Cacatua chrysolophus Lesson, R.P. 1830. Traité d'Ornithologie, ou Tableau Méthodique des ordres, sous-ordres, familles, tribus, genres, sous-genres et races d'oiseaux. Paris : F.G. Levrault Vol. 1 xxxii 659 pp., Vol. 2 (Atlas) xii 119. [Date published July 1830: Livr. 3, July 1830, dated 1831; Livr. 6 published 1831] [182].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s)
  Comment: nom. nov. for Psittacus galeritus Latham, 1790, although applied to both Australian and New Guinean populations.
• Plyctolophus macrorhamphus Brookes, J. 1830. A Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the remainder of the Anatomical and Zoological Museum of Joshua Brookes, Esq., F.R.S. London : J. Brookes Pt II pp. [page unspecified].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s)
  Comment: nom. nud.; assigned to synonymy of nominotypical Cacatua galerita (Latham, 1790) by Mathews (1924), but name remains unavailable under ICZN Art. 11(e).
• Kakadoe australensis Bourjot Saint-Hilaire, A. 1838. Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets, troisième volume (Supplémentaire), pour faire suite aux deux volumes de Levaillant, contenant les espèces laissées inédites par cet auteur ou récemment découvertes. Paris : F.G. Levrault xl 110 pp. 111 pls. [publication dated as 1837–1838] [pl. 79] [as sulphureus major vel australensis; nom. nov. for Psittacus galeritus Latham, 1790, but unavailable, being a latinized substantive for a French vernacular name under ICZN Art. 5 & 11(c) – see Mathews (1913) & Mathews (1917)].
• Plyctolophus licmetorhynchus Bonaparte, C.L. 1850. Nouvelles espèces ornithologiques. Première partie: Perroquets. Lugduni. Comptes Rendus (Hebdomadaires) des Séances de l'Academie des Sciences. Série D. Sciences Naturelles 30: 131-139 [published Feb.] [139].

  Type data:

   Holotype MNHP, TAS (as la terre de Van Diemen)
  Comment: considered to be characterised by smaller, attenuate bill, pace – see Condon (1975).
• Cacatoes galerita queenslandica Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] [264].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 619613 ♂ adult (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 4323), Cooktown, N QLD
  Comment: holotype labelled with locality 'Johnstone River', type locality specified as 'Cooktown' both in original description – see Greenway (1978).

  Type locality references:

  Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1-306.
• Cacatoes galerita rosinae Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additions and corrections to my Reference List to the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 1(2): 25-52 [Date published 2 Apr 1912] [36] [anonymously—authorship credited in Austral. Avian. Rec. 1: 65].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 619642 ♀ adult (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 10170), Middle River, Kangaroo Is., SA (as Kangaroo Island, South Australia)
  Comment: for identification of holotype and misidentification of type locality as Bass Strait, see Greenway (1978).

  Type locality references:

  Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [91] (determined from holotype label).
• Kakatoe galerita interjecta Mathews, G.M. 1917. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 6 pts 2 pp.105-516 pls 283-324. [Date published Sept. 1917: publication dated as 1916–1917] [184].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) AMNH 619631, 619637 & 619638 (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Gippsland, and Box Hill near Melbourne, VIC – as Victoria (South?)
  Comment: for identification of syntypes, see Greenway (1978).

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [91]

 

Introduction

The information for the type designation of species Psittacus galeritus Latham, 1790 is based on material, since lost, that was taken by Joseph Banks' party on James Cook's first voyage to Australia, see references: to Latham in Sharpe (1906); Whittell (1954); Whitehead (1969); and Mathews (1925). On that voyage, 'white' cockatoos were recorded at Endeavour River, QLD, and probably Botany Bay, NSW, see Whittell (1954). Accordingly, a neotype was designated by Schodde (in Schodde & Mason 1997) to fix the type locality near Botany Bay and so to the population to which the name galerita Latham, 1790 has conventionally been applied—this designation has the approval of the Taxonomic Advisory Committee of the Royal Australiasian Ornithologists Union. For localities from which different subspecies have been distinguished, see Peters (1937).

 

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and subcoastal E Australia, up to c. 1500 m altitude, north to all Cape York Peninsula and north-west to the Flinders-lower Cloncurry River, QLD—inland west to the upper Flinders River, headwaters of the Thompson, Barcoo, Bulloo and Paroo Rivers, QLD, the central Darling River basin and Murray-Murrumbidgee River system including the Riverina, NSW—south to southern VIC and the South-East of SA, west to Mt Lofty and S Flinders Ranges—also main islands in SW Torres Strait, Fraser Is., TAS (rare on east coast), islands in Bass Strait except Furneaux Group, and Kangaroo Is., SA. Introduced to metropolitan Perth, WA, in the 1930s–60s and established there and in Darling Ranges north to Bullsbrook and south to Harvey (now controlled and declining).

IBRA and IMCRA regions

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones

IBRA

NSW, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Ben Lomond (BEL), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Channel Country (CHC), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gawler (GAW), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Gulf Plains (GUP), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), King (KIN), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Queensland: Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin, N Gulf, NE coastal, NE oceanic
  • South Australia: Murray-Darling basin, S Gulfs, SE coastal
  • Tasmania
  • Victoria
  • Western Australia: SW coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, diurnal, granivore, gregarious, low woodland, nomadic, open forest, root-feeder, terrestrial, tussock grassland, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Seasonal breeder, feeds on ground or in trees on seeds, fruit, shoots and roots, flocks in small to large groups, flies with stiff, jerked wing beats and protracted glides, nests in tree hollows or cliff holes lined with wood debris and/or dust, both sexes incubate and feed yellow-downed chicks, wanders seasonally to local/regional food sources.

 

General References

Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia. Part 1 Non-Passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp.

Forshaw, J.M. 1968. Variation in the lengths of wing and exposed culmen in the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo in Australia. The Emu 67: 267-282 (geographical variation)

Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1-306

Kerr, R. 1792. The Animal Kingdom, or Zoological System, of the celebrated Sir Charles Linnaeus; being a translation of that part of the Systema Naturae, as lately published, with great improvements, by Professor Gmelin of Goettingen. Class II. Birds. London : J. Murray & R. Faulder xii 644 pp.

Lea, A.M. & Gray, J.T. 1935. The food of Australian birds. An analysis of the stomach contents. The Emu 34: 275-292 (diet)

Long, J.L. 1981. Introduced Birds of the World. The worldwide history, distribution and influence of birds introduced to new environments. Illustrated by Susan Tingay. Sydney : A.H. & A.W. Reed 528 pp. (Australian introductions)

Mathews, G.M. 1913. A List of the Birds of Australia containing the names and synonyms connected with each genus, species, and subspecies of birds found in Australia, at present known to the author. London : Witherby xxvii 453 pp.

Mathews, G.M. 1917. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 6 pts 2 pp.105-516 pls 283-324. [Date published Sept. 1917: publication dated as 1916–1917] [155]

Mathews, G.M. 1924. In Proceedings of meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, March 12, 1924. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 44: 69-70 (synonymy)

Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.

Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp.

Sharpe, R.B. 1906. Birds. pp. 79–515 in, The History of the Collections contained in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum. London : British Museum Vol. 2.

Whitehead, P.J.P. 1969. Zoological specimens from Captain Cook's voyages. Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History 5: 161-201

Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp.

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
30-Aug-2016	Cacatuini	13-Apr-2016	MODIFIED
29-Feb-2012		29-Feb-2012	MOVED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)