Species Neophema (Neophema) pulchella (Shaw, 1792)

Museums

Museum list

Regional Maps

CAVS: 0302

Species Neophema (Neophema) pulchella (Shaw, 1792)

Turquoise Parrot

Psittacus pulchellus Shaw, G. in Shaw, G. & Nodder, F.P. (ill.) 1792. The Naturalist's Miscellany; or coloured figures of natural objects drawn and described immediately from nature. London : Nodder Vol. III pls 75-110. [pl. 93 of original description dated Feb. 1792] [text to pl. 96] [pl. 96 to original description dated Mar. 1792; type material unspecified, but almost certainly a specimen in the Leverian Museum received via Governor Arthur Phillip or Surgeon-General John White from the First Fleet settlement at Port Jackson—now untraced, following dispersal of Leverian Museum, see 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.; Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp. (439–440); Stresemann, E. 1975. Ornithology from Aristotle to the Present. [Transl. H.J. & C. Epstein, Cottrell, G.W. (ed.)]. Cambridge : Harvard University Press xii 432 pp. (120); not cited in museums receiving its collections, see von Pelzeln, A. 1873. On the birds in the Imperial Collection at Vienna obtained from the Leverian Museum. Ibis 3 3: 14–54; Von Pelzeln, A. 1873. On the birds in the Imperial Collection at Vienna obtained from the Leverian Museum. Part II. Ibis 3 3: 105–124; Wagstaffe, R. 1978. Type Specimens of Birds in the Merseyside County Museums. Liverpool : Merseyside County Museums, Merseyside County Council 33 pp.].
Type data:
Holotype whereabouts unknown (?lost ex Leverian Museum?, figured on pl. 96 in Shaw, G. & Nodder, F.P. (ill.) 1792. The Naturalist's Miscellany; or coloured figures of natural objects drawn and described immediately from nature. London : Nodder Vol. III pls 75–110 pp.), region of Port Jackson, NSW (as nova Hollandia/New Holland).
Type locality references:
Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] (c.f. Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171–455 [publication dated Jan. 1912, published 31 Jan.]); 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. [153] (by reason of the fact that all material of Australian birds reaching England in the early 1790s came from around the First Fleet settlement at Port Jackson, NSW, see Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp. [23–27]).
Psittacus edwardsii Bechstein, J.M. 1811. Kurze Uebersicht aller bekannten Vögel: oder ihre Kennzeichen der Art nach Lathams General Synopsis of Birds und seinem Index ornithologicus. Nürnberg : A.G. Schneider & Weigel iv 536 pp. 42 pls. [74] [Pt 1, 1811, iv 320 pp.; as Edwardsii ; based in part on la Perruche Edwards on pl. 68 and p. 130 in Levaillant, F. 1805. Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets. Paris : Levrault, Schoell & Ce Vol. 1 135 pp. pls 1–71 [published between 1801–1805]].
Type data:
Syntype(s) whereabouts unknown (including MNHP?, figured on pl. 6, fig. 1 in Bechstein, J.M. 1811. Kurze Uebersicht aller bekannten Vögel oder ihre Kennzeichen der Art nach Lathams General Synopsis of Birds und seinem Index ornithologicus. Nürnberg : A.G. Schneider & Weigel iv 536 pp. 42 pls and on pl. 68 in Levaillant, F. 1805. Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets. Paris : Levrault, Schoell & Ce Vol. 1 135 pp. pls 1–71 [published between 1801–1805]), New South Wales (as Südsee Inseln).
Type locality references:
Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912].
Secondary source:
Levaillant, F. 1805. Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets. Paris : Levrault, Schoell & Ce Vol. 1 135 pp. pls 1-71. [published between 1801–1805].
Lathamus azureus 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] [205] [livr. 3; based in part on Psittacus pulchellus Shaw, 1792, on Perruche d' Edwards on pl. 68 and p. 130 in Levaillant, F. 1805. Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets. Paris : Levrault, Schoell & Ce Vol. 1 135 pp. pls 1–71 [published between 1801–1805], and on Psittacus pulchellus Shaw, 1792 on pl. 73 (male) in Swainson, W. 1823. Zoological Illustrations; or Original Figures and Descriptions of new, rare, or interesting Animals, selected chiefly from the classes of Ornithology, Entomology, and Conchology, and arranged on the principles of Cuvier and other modern zoologists.. London : Baldwin, Cradock & Joy Vol. 1 ix 75 pp., pls 1–66, Vol. 2–63 pp., pl. 67, Vol. 3 x 71 pp. [published between 1820-1823]].
Type data:

Syntype(s) MNHP (Institution uncertain; that of Psittacus pulchellus Shaw, 1792, those of Psittacus edwardsii Bechstein, 1811), New South Wales (as Nouvelle-Zélande); UMZC (Institution uncertain), New South Wales (as Nouvelle-Zélande).
Type locality references:
Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912].
Secondary source:
Levaillant, F. 1805. Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets. Paris : Levrault, Schoell & Ce Vol. 1 135 pp. pls 1-71. [published between 1801–1805]; Swainson, W. 1823. Zoological Illustrations; or Original Figures and Descriptions of new, rare, or interesting Animals, selected chiefly from the classes of Ornithology, Entomology, and Conchology, and arranged on the principles of Cuvier and other modern zoologists. London : Baldwin, Cradock & Joy Vol. 1 ix 75 pp., pls 1-66, Vol. 2-63 pp., pl. 67, Vol. 3 x 71 pp. [published between 1820-1823].
Neophema pulchella dombraini Mathews, G.M. 1915. Additions and corrections to my List of the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 2: 123-133 [Date published 129] [128].
Type data:

Syntype(s) AMNH no. unspecified ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), southern Victoria; AMNH 623534 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), southern Victoria
Comment: AMNH 623534, a ♀, identified as holotype by 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, but original description based at least mainly on a male (red scapulars) without specification of type material: thus AMNH 623534 is at best a syntype.
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.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia. Part 1 Non-Passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp. [203]

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and inland scarps and foothills of Great Dividing Range, east locally to coast—N originally to Suttor-Isaac Rivers and presently at least to Kroombit Tops, QLD—west to Expedition Range and middle Moonie River, QLD, and Yetman, Warrumbungle Range, Nymagee, Cocoparra Range, and hills between Wagga Wagga, Narrandera and Albury, NSW—south to Benalla-Shepparton and E Gippsland, VIC, formerly as far as the Dandenong Ranges—generally absent from central and southern tablelands, NSW, and south-eastern alpine regions.

Note that conversion of the original AFD map of states, drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones to IBRA and IMCRA regions may have produced errors. The new maps will be reviewed and corrected as updates occur. The maps may not indicate the entire distribution. See further details below.

IBRA and IMCRA regions (map not available)

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones (map not available)

IBRA

NSW, Qld, Vic: Australian Alps (AA), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Flinders (FLI), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), 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), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

Australia
- New South Wales: Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
- Queensland: Murray-Darling basin, NE coastal
- Victoria

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, diurnal, folivore, granivore, gregarious, low open woodland, low woodland, migratory, nomadic, open forest, open scrub, resident, terrestrial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Seasonal breeder, sexually dimorphic, on grassy edges of eucalypt woodland and open forest on hill slopes, ridges and stream gullies, feeds mainly on seeds on ground, flies directly with rapid wing beats punctuated by short glides on in-drawn wings, nests on bed of wood dust/debris in tree hollows, incubation by female, both sexes rear pale grey-downed, yellowish-billed chicks, wanders locally and regionally to seasonal food sources, with evidently some northward shift during winter and southward to breed in spring (but movements erratic).