Taxonomic Decision for Subspecies Arrangement

• Salvadori, T. 1893. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Columbae, or Pigeons. London : British Museum Vol. 21 xvii 676 pp. XV pls. [531]
• Mathews, G.M. 1927. Systema Avium Australasianarum. A systematic list of the birds of the Australasian region. London : British Ornithologists' Union Pt 1 iv 426 pp.
• Peters, J.L. 1937. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 3 xiii 311 pp.
• Officer, H.R. 1963. Colour of the orbital ring in the Squatter-Pigeon. The Emu 63: 72-73
• Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia. Part 1 Non-Passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp. (alternative arrangement)
• Frith, H.J. 1982. Pigeons and Doves of Australia. Adelaide : Rigby vii 304 pp., 32 pls. [253-254]
• Ford, J. 1986. Avian hybridization and allopatry in the region of the Einasleigh uplands and Burdekin-Lynd divide, north-eastern Queensland. The Emu 86: 87-110

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland

IBRA

NSW, Qld: Australian Alps (AA), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), 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), Gulf Plains (GUP), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Riverina (RIV), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: Bulloo River basin, Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin
  • Queensland: Bulloo River basin, Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin, N Gulf, NE coastal

History of changes

• Geophaps scripta peninsulae White, H.L. 1922. Two new subspecies of birds. The Emu 21: 163 [163].

  Type data:

   Holotype NMV ♂ adult (H.L. White coll. no. 579), Coen, Cape York Peninsula, QLD.

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Southern and central Cape York Peninsula, north to the upper Watson-Wenlock Rivers, W and E to both coasts and south, excluding rainforest belt to the lower Norman River, middle Clara River, Gregory Range, and upper Einasleigh and Burdekin Rivers, south of which it intergrades with G. s. scripta (Temminck, 1821).

IBRA

Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), NSW North Coast (NNC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, diurnal, granivore, gregarious, low open woodland, open forest, open scrub, sedentary, terrestrial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder/opportunistic breeder, ground-feeding seed-eater, flushes explosively, flapping high and gliding away, drinks in groups, roosts in low trees or bushes, nests on ground in dry season, wanders only locally to seasonal food sources.

General References

Crome, F.H.J. 1976. Breeding, moult and food of the Squatter Pigeon in north-eastern Queensland. Australian Wildlife Research 3: 45-59 (habitat, diet, moult, reproductive cycle, intergradation with G. s. scripta (Temminck, 1821))

History of changes

• Columba scripta Temminck, C.J. 1821. Account of some new species of birds of the genera Psittacus and Columba, in the Museum of the Linnean Society. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 13: 107-130 [publication dated as 1822] [127] [for identification and deposition of syntype in BMNH, see Salvadori, T. 1893. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Columbae, or Pigeons. London : British Museum Vol. 21 xvii 676 pp. XV pls (532); 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. (414); Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.: this specimen is there interpreted as holotype, but Temminck in the original description records that his description is of an old male and that the specimen of the Linnean Society (now in BMNH) appears to be a female or young male—the old male is evidently the adult ex cabinet Temminck in RMNH; lectotypification effected under ICZN Art. 74(a)].

  Type data:

   Lectotype BMNH 1863.7.6.73 adult, Shoalwater Bay, 22ºS, QLD (as Shoalwater—bay 22 degré de latitude sud à la côte orientale de la Nouvelle Hollande).
  Paralectotype(s) RMNH ♂ adult (C.J. Temminck Cabinet cat. no. 1).

  Subsequent designation references:

  Salvadori, T. 1893. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Columbae, or Pigeons. London : British Museum Vol. 21 xvii 676 pp. XV pls. [532].
• Columba inscripta Wagler, J. 1827. Systema Avium. Pars prima. Stuttgart and Tubingen : J.G. Cottae 411 (unpaginated). [nom. nov. for Columba scripta Temminck, 1821; Columba sp. 59 (=p. 249)].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s).
• Geophaps scripta bourkei Mathews, G.M. 1915. Additions and corrections to my List of the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 2: 123-133 [Date published 129] [124] [type specified only with the locality 'Bourke' in original description; three specimens collected before 1915 bear that locality in the G.M. Mathews collection in AMNH, and accordingly are treated as syntypes, see 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].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) AMNH 616100 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Bourke, NSW; AMNH 616101 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Bourke, NSW; AMNH 616102 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Bourke, NSW.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Frith, H.J. 1982. Pigeons and Doves of Australia. Adelaide : Rigby vii 304 pp., 32 pls. [253-254]

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

E QLD, N to Burdekin R. formerly N NSW (now vagrant); ; central E QLD and central N NSW, north to Proserpine and the Suttor River drainage, QLD, west to Barcaldine and Charleville, QLD, and Louth, NSW, south locally to Cobar, West Wyalong and Bingara, NSW, where formerly widespread to Liverpool Plains and Dubbo, and east to Dumaresq River, NSW, where rare, and Warwick, Esk, Biggenden, and Port Curtis, QLD and along coast to Proserpine—erratic in Bulloo River overflow and Grey Range, NSW, QLD. Intergrades with G. s. peninsulae White, 1922 north from Proserpine and Suttor drainage through central Burdekin River valley to the Stopem Blockem Range and head of the Stawell River drainage, QLD.

IBRA

NSW, Qld: Australian Alps (AA), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), 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), Gulf Plains (GUP), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Riverina (RIV), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: Bulloo River basin, Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin
  • Queensland: Bulloo River basin, Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin, N Gulf, NE coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, diurnal, granivore, gregarious, low open woodland, open forest, open scrub, sedentary, terrestrial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder/opportunistic breeder, ground-feeding seed-eater, flushes explosively, flapping high and gliding away, drinks in groups, roosts in low trees, nests on ground, wanders only locally to seasonal food sources.

General References

Crome, F.H.J. 1976. Breeding, moult and food of the Squatter Pigeon in north-eastern Queensland. Australian Wildlife Research 3: 45-59 (intergradation with G. s. peninsulae White, 1922)

Frith, H.J. 1977. Some display postures of Australian pigeons. Ibis 119: 167-182 (behaviour)

Longmore, N.W. 1976. Squatter Pigeon near West Wyalong, NSW. Australian Birds 11: 18 (range occurrence)

History of changes