Subspecies Petrophassa albipennis albipennis Gould, 1841

Museums

Regional Maps

• Petrophassa albipennis Gould, J. 1841. In Proceedings of meeting of Zoological Society of London, Dec. 8, 1840. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1840: 168-178 [Date published Jul 1841: publication dated 1840] [173].

  Type data:

   Lectotype ANSP 13566 ♂ adult (Verreaux cat. no. 40), Sunday Islands, King Sound, WA (as Western Australia).
  Paralectotype(s) ANSP 13565 ♀ adult (Verreaux cat. no. 39)
  Comment: for identification of syntypes, see Meyer de Schauensee, R. 1957. On some avian types, principally Gould's, in the collection of the Academy. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 109: 123–246: syntypes thus figured on pl. 71 in Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould 5 92 pls pp. [published Sept. 1841]; type locality designated as (i) Wyndham by Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additions and corrections to my Reference List to the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 1(2): 25–52 [published 2 April 1912], and (ii) King Sound, WA, by Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp. (104) and Parker, S.A. 1968. The type-locality of the White-quilled Rock-pigeon Petrophassa albipennis Gould. Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History Zool. 88: 57–58, and (iii) mouth of Victoria River, NT, by Crome, F.H.J. & Johnstone, R.E. 1979. Geographical variation in the Australian Rock Pigeons. Records of the Western Australian Museum 8: 117–133.

  Subsequent designation references:

  Stone, W. in Stone, W. & Mathews, G.M. 1913. A list of the species of Australian birds described by John Gould, with the location of the type-specimens. Austral Avian Records 1: 129-180 [Date published 28 Feb 1913].
• Petrophassa albipennis alisteri 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] [28] [published without author—authorship credited in Austral Avian Rec. 1: 65].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 615850 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 5632), Napier Broome Bay, N WA
  Comment: for identification of holotype, 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.

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Crome, F.H.J. & Johnstone, R.E. 1979. Geographical variation in the Australian Rock Pigeons. Records of the Western Australian Museum 8: 117-133 [130]

 

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Kimberley Division south-west to King Sound (Sunday Ils), south to southern outliers of King Leopold Ranges, and south-east and east through Durack, Carr Boyd and Pinkerton Ranges, and ranges around the lower reaches of the Victoria River, N of Baines River to ranges about the headwaters of the Fitzmaurice and Flora Rivers, NT.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones

IBRA

NT, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Central Arnhem (CA), Central Kimberley (CK), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Dampierland (DL), Northern Kimberley (NK), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Diurnal, granivore, gregarious, low open woodland, low woodland, open forest, open scrub, saxicoline, sedentary, tall open shrubland, terrestrial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, ground-living seed-eater on rock sheets, rock faces and adjacent alluvium of sandstone ranges and tumbled breakaways, drinks in small groups, flies with clattering flap-and-glide flight, roosts and nests on rock ledges and crevices, shifts locally to food and water.

 

General References

Frith, C.B. 1970. Nests and eggs of the Australian rock pigeons Petrophassa spp. The Emu 70: 29-30 pl. 1 (nest and eggs)

Frith, H.J., Wolfe, T.O. & Barker, R.D. 1976. Food of eight species of Columbidae, in the genera Geopelia, Phaps, Geophaps and Petrophassa. Australian Wildlife Research 3: 159-171 (diet)

Goodwin, D. 1974. Columbidae. In, Hall, B.P. (ed.). Birds of the Harold Hall Australian Expeditions 1962–70. A report on the collections made for the British Museum (Natural History). Results of the Harold Hall Australian Expeditions. London : British Museum Vol. 33 xi 396 pp., 10 pls col. pl. map. (distribution, habitat, behaviour, food, reproductive cycle, softpart colours, geographical variation)

Parker, S.A. 1968. The type-locality of the White-quilled Rock-pigeon Petrophassa albipennis Gould. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Zool. 88: 57-58 (type locality)

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
		12-Feb-2010	(import)