" Bir«ls of a feather.' 



Vol. XVIII.] 1ST APRIL, 1919. [Part 4. 



A New Pigeon Recorded for Australia— the Red^cered 

 Pigeon {Globicera rubricera). 



By J. A. Kershaw, F.E.S., Curator, National Museum, 

 Melbourne. 



In the Austral Avian Record (vol. ii., No. 5, 1914) Mr. G. M. 

 Mathews recorded two additional species of Pigeons for Australia. 

 One of these he had previously recorded among his additions to 

 the Australian avifauna in his " List of the Birds of x\ustralia " 

 under the name of Globicera pacifica lepida, but, after its com- 

 parison with Cassin's type of Carpophaga lepida in the collection 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, he described 

 it as a new sub-species, and gave it the name of Globicera pacifica 

 queenslandica. 



The other species recorded is Globicera rubricera lepida. This 

 was described by Cassin * in 1854, under the name of Carpophaga 

 lepida, from a single specimen in the collection of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences. 



According to Cassin, the specimen was obtained in Europe by 

 Mr. Edward Wilson, and was labelled " Northern Australia (?)." 



Apparently on the statement of Mr. Stone, of the Academy 

 of Sciences Museum, " that the locality had never been doubted," f 

 Mathews decided to include this species in the list of Australian 

 birds ; but in view of the remoteness from Austraha of the known 

 habitat of the species, which appears to be restricted to the 

 Bismarck Archipelago, and the absence of any other Australian 

 record, it seems possible that a mistake has been made in the 

 locality. However, to draw attention to the need for further 

 investigation, this fine Pigeon is figured here. 



The two specimens which form the subject of the coloured plate 

 are from New Britain and the Duke of York Island, and are in 

 the collection of the National Museum, Melbourne. 



* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., voL vii., p. 230, 1854. 

 f Mathews, Aust. Avian Rec, vol. ii., p. 84, 1914. 



17 



