Firstly, Pizzey says there are 297 species of pigeon and dove worldwide (Family Columbidae) and Australian has 25 of these (3 introduced - can you name them? I was only familiar with the two).
The genus Phaps contains three species, all Australian
- Common Bronzewing (shown here)
- Brush Bronzewing
- Flock Bronzewing - a book given to me lists this among the "100 birds to see before you die"
 |
| Common Bronzewing (Phaps chalcoptera) |
 |
| Same bird, different aspects Lilydale Lake |
The genus name Phaps does have it's origins in the colour bronze I believe. Apparently there was some jostling about naming rights (a Mr Swainson tried to force his perispera on to Mr Selby's phaps). In a tome called A list of the genera of birds: with their synonyma and an indication of the typical species of each genus by George Robert Gray (1841) there is an appendix: Mr Strickland's commentary (see the relevant paragraph in this Google e-book) which describes this episode.
Other links:
The Phaps chalcoptera page from Birds in Backyards
Wikipedia's Common Bronzewing page which carries this great image of a bronzewing feather. There is also a nice summary of Phaps and related birds here.
Other links:
The Phaps chalcoptera page from Birds in Backyards
Wikipedia's Common Bronzewing page which carries this great image of a bronzewing feather. There is also a nice summary of Phaps and related birds here.
Michael Dahlem's Webpage carries some indigenous names for the Common bronzewing and an image of a time when the birds were more plentiful. See it here:
 |
| 'This photo is a reminder of the "olden days", when Common Bronzewings were still plentiful - on this occasion we saw a total of about 50 birds' M Dahlem, Narrabri NSW |
Amongst the University Of Tasmania's collection is this:
 |
| Bird painting of a 'Bronze winged Pigeon (Phaps chalcoptera)' by William Lewis May (1861-1925) Tasmania |
No comments:
Post a Comment