Subspecies Platycercus (Violania) venustus venustus (Kuhl, 1820)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Psittacus venustus Kuhl, H. 1820. Conspectus Psittacorum. Cum specierum definitionibus, novarum descriptionibus, synonymis et circa patriam singularum naturalem adversariis, adjecto indice museorum, ubi earum artificiosae exuviae servantur. Nova Acta Physico-Medica Academiae Caesareae Leopoldino-Carolinae 10: 1-104 pls I-III [52] [holotype figured on pl. 19 in the F. Bauer drawings in BMNH, collected by Robert Brown in Feb. 1803 on Matthew Flinders' circumnavigation of Australia, see 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.; Mathews, G.M. 1917. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 6 pt 4 pp. 297–372 pls 300–307 [27 June 1917, volume dated as 1916–1917] (347); Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp.; type locality is in dispute: Arnhem Bay is recorded by Vigors, N.A. & Horsfield, T. 1827. A description of the Australian birds in the collection of the Linnean Society; with an attempt at arranging them according to their natural affinities. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 15: 170–331 [publication dated 1826, published Feb. 1827] (283); Mathews, G.M. 1917. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 6 pt 4 pp. 297–372 pls 300–307 [27 June 1917, volume dated as 1916–1917] (347, 350), and 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., whereas nearby Caledon Bay is argued for by McAllan, I.A.W. 1989. Reassignment of the type-locality of Platycercus venustus (Kuhl, 1820), the Northern Rosella. South Australian Ornithologist 30: 193–195; Robert Brown's collection slip re holotype records: no. 804, Arnheim Bay, 6 Feb., 1803, see Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp. (55); the issue turns on whether 'Arnheim Bay' is an error for Caledon Bay where Brown went ashore with Flinders on 5–6 Feb. 1803 but recorded no birds, or whether 6 Feb. 1803 is an error for 16 Feb. 1803, in the period when Flinders' expedition was in the Arnheim-Melville Bay area and recorded a number of birds including 'a beautiful species of paroquet not known at Port Jackson' (Flinders' journal); given these discrepancies, and the fact that neither of these adjacent localities affects the application of venustus Kuhl, 1820 taxonomically, nothing is gained from amending its conventional provenance].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH 1863.7.6.6 unsexed adult (=♂; ex Linnean Society of London coll.), Arnheim (=Arnhem) Bay, northeast Arnhem Land, NT (as Nova Hollandia)
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see 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.

  Type locality references:

  Vigors, N.A. & Horsfield, T. 1827. A description of the Australian birds in the collection of the Linnean Society; with an attempt at arranging them according to their natural affinities. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 15: 170-331 [Date published 17 Feb 1827: publication dated 1826] [283]; Mathews, G.M. 1917. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 6 pts 1-6 xix 516 pp. pls 275-324. [Date published June 1917: publication dated as 1916–1917] [350] (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.]).
• Psittacus brownii 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] [119] [junior homonym of Psittacus brownii Kuhl, 1820 (=Platycercus caledonicus (Gmelin, 1788)); junior objective synonym of Psittacus venustus Kuhl, 1820, q.v., based on same specimen, see Salvadori, T. 1891. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Psittaci, or Parrots. London : British Museum Vol. 20 xvii 658 pp. XVIII pls (550), and entries under H. Kuhl, C.J. Temminck and these specific names in 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., and 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. (43, 304); also as incorrect subsequent spelling, browni, e.g., by Salvadori, T. 1891. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Psittaci, or Parrots. London : British Museum Vol. 20 xvii 658 pp. XVIII pls; holotype figured on pl. 19 in the F. Bauer drawings in BMNH; for type locality, see Psittacus venustus Kuhl, 1820 above].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH 1863.7.6.6 unsexed adult (=♂) (ex Linnean Society of London coll.), Arnheim (=Arnhem) Bay, northeast Arnhem Land, NT (as sur la côte nord de la Nouvelle Hollande).

  Type locality references:

  Vigors, N.A. & Horsfield, T. 1827. A description of the Australian birds in the collection of the Linnean Society; with an attempt at arranging them according to their natural affinities. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 15: 170-331 [Date published 17 Feb 1827: publication dated 1826] [283]; Mathews, G.M. 1917. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 6 pt 4 pp. 297-372 pls 300-307. [Date published 27 June 1917: volume dated as 1916–1917] [350].
• Platycercus venustus melvillensis 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] [published anonymously—authorship credited in Austral Avian Rec. 1: 65; for assessment of holotype, see Cain, A.J. 1955. A revision of Trichoglossus haematodus and of the Australian platycercine parrots. Ibis 97: 432–479; holotype apparently illustrated as lower figure on plate 305 and described in detail on p. 346 in Mathews, G.M. 1917. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 6 pt 4 pp. 297–372 pls 300–307 [27 June 1917, volume dated as 1916–1917]].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 623014 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 10897), Melville Is., NT
  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

• Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia. Part 1 Non-Passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp. [196]

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Arnhem Land, NT, south to Roper and upper Daly River drainages—east on coastal plains and ranges inland to northern fringe of Barkly Tableland as far as upper Gregory and middle Nicholson River drainages, QLD—and south-west to mid- and lower-Victoria River drainage where probably intergrades with P. v. hilli Mathews, 1910—also Melville-Bathurst and Millingimbi Ils.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones

IBRA

NT, Qld: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Central Arnhem (CA), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: N Gulf

Ecological Descriptors

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

Extra Ecological Information

Seasonal breeder, in eucalypt and paperbark (Melaleuca) woodland and open forest, feeds mainly on seeds arboreally and on ground, rather solitary or in pairs, 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

Forshaw, J.M. 1981. Australian Parrots. 2nd (revised) Edn. Illustrated by W.T. Cooper. Melbourne : Lansdowne Edns 312 pp. 56 pls. (general biology, references)

History of changes