Subspecies Platycercus (Violania) adscitus palliceps Lear, 1832

Museums

Regional Maps

• Platycercus palliceps Lear, E. 1832. Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or Parrots: the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured, containing forty-two lithographic plates, drawn from life, and on stone. London : E. Lear 42 pls. [Pt XII, published 1832, publication dated as 1830–1832] [pl. 19] [published without description or locality but in association with a coloured illustration and available under ICZN Art. 12(b)(7); also as incorrect subsequent spelling, pallidus by Sclater, P.L. 1862. Additions to the menagerie. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1862: 184–186; based apparently on a single adult in the collection of B. & J. Leadbeater, dealers, London; type locality not specified and currently stated imprecisely as 'New South Wales', making application of name uncertain, see Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171–455 [publication dated Jan. 1912, published 31 Jan.] and subsequent revisions; Peters, J.L. 1937. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 3 xiii 311 pp.; and Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp.—however, Lear's associate and later employer, Gould in Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 5 92 pls pp. [Pt 8, 1842] (text to pl. 26) records that all specimens that he had seen in England, both alive and preserved, had come from Moreton Bay, QLD; as Lear's figure of the holotype matches the form found there, Moreton Bay may be taken as its type locality].

  Type data:

   Holotype whereabouts unknown (?lost, ex B. & J. Leadbeater coll., figured on pl. 19 in Lear, E. 1832. Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or Parrots: the greater part of them species hitherto unfigured, containing forty-two lithographic plates, drawn from life, and on stone. London : E. Lear 42 pls pp. [Pt XII, published 1832, publication dated as 1830–1832]), Moreton Bay, QLD (published without locality).

  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. [183].
• Platycercus coelestis Lesson, R.P. 1844. Catalogue descriptif des oiseaux nouveau, rares ou peu connus, de la collection Abeillé, 8th Article. Écho du Monde Savant, 11th year, 18 July, n. 5: cols 110–112. [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. Zimmer, J.T. 1926. Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library. Field Museum of Natural History Publications, Zoological Series 16: 1–364 (Pt 1, Publ. 239), 365–706 (Pt 2, Publ. 240) (cf. Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 4 pp. 353–440 + xi pls 267–274) Gray, G.R. 1855. Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds contained in the British Museum. London : British Museum 192 pp.] [col. 111] [also as incorrect subsequent spelling, coelestris by 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. (340); Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp. (437); identity and whereabouts of type material uncertain—not cited by Pucheran, J. 1853. Etudes sur les types peu connus du Musée de Paris. Sixième article. (Grimpeurs). Rev. Mag. Zool. Paris 2 5: 156–164].

  Type data:

   Holotype MNHP (institution uncertain, ex Abeillé coll.), SE QLD, ?region of Moreton Bay (as Nouvelle-Hollande: Point ignore).

  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. [184] (for reasons given under Platycercus palliceps Lear, 1832 (q.v.), cf. 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.).
• Platycercus pallidiceps Reichenow, A. 1881. Conspectus Psittacorum. Systematische Uebersicht aller bekannten Papageienarten. Journal of Ornithology 29: 1-49, 113-177, 225-289, 337-398 [119] [unjustified emendation of Platycercus palliceps Lear, 1832].
• Platycercus adscitus mackaiensis Cain, A.J. 1955. A revision of Trichoglossus haematodus and of the Australian platycercine parrots. Ibis 97: 432-479 [436].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 622983 unsexed (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 6437), Mackay, QLD
  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

• Wolters, H.E. 1975. Die Vogelarten der Erde. Eine systematische Liste mit Verbreitungsangaben sowie deutschen und englischen Namen. Hamburg : Paul Parey Lief. 1, 1-80 pp. [67]

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and near inland NE Australia, north to Burdekin River drainage and Gregory Range, QLD—west to the upper Flinders River system, Barcaldine, Charleville, Mitchell and Mungindi, QLD—south to the plains on either side of the Great Dividing Range, reaching the Barwon-Namoi Rivers drainage, NSW, in west, occasionally as far as Bourke and Warrumbungle Ranges, and the Tweed River (rarely Richmond River), NSW. Intergrades with P. e. eximius (Shaw, 1792) and P. e. elecica Schodde & Short, 1989 over rather narrow zone along southern limits of range, and with P. e. adscitus (Latham, 1790) over wider zone at northern limits, mainly between Rockingham Bay and the Endeavour, Einasleigh, Palmer, Gilbert and Norman River drainages.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones

IBRA

NSW, Qld: 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), Gulf Plains (GUP), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Queensland: Murray-Darling basin, N Gulf, NE coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, diurnal, florivore, folivore, frugivorous, granivore, gregarious, low woodland, nomadic, open forest, resident, terrestrial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Seasonal breeder, in open eucalypt forest and woodland, feeds mainly on seeds arboreally and on ground, flies in shallow undulations bringing wings in to side of body, nests on bed of wood dust/debris in tree hollows, incubation by female, both sexes rear pale grey-downed, yellowish-billed chicks, wanders locally to seasonal food sources.

General References

Cannon, C.E. 1981. The diet of Eastern and Pale-headed Rosellas. The Emu 81: 101-110 (diet, ecology of diet)

Cannon, C.E. 1983. Descriptions of foraging behaviour of Eastern and Pale-headed Rosellas. Bird Behaviour 4: 63-70 (feeding behaviour)

Cannon, C.E. 1984. Flock size of feeding Eastern and Pale-headed Rosellas (Aves: Psittaciformes). Australian Wildlife Research 11: 349-355 (behaviour)

Cannon, C.E. 1984. Rosellas, Platycercus spp., and their hybrids in the eastern Queensland - New South Wales border region. The Australian Zoologist 21: 175-183 (estimates of hybridization by field observation)

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. (introductions)

History of changes