WA Museum specimens showing an external difference between male and female WGPs

 The photos were taken in December 2005, when the Western Australian Museum had only four Western Ground Parrot specimens.

The photos below were taken with permission from the WA Museum and are being published here with permission. No unauthorized use of the images is permitted.

Three of the specimens are shown here. The fourth lacks his head. All came from the south coast. From L to R: a juvenile female that was a casualty of a radio-tracking project in the Fitzgerald River National Park (well east of Albany) in 1988; a bird shot in Torbay (west of Albany) 1906 in mistake for a quail; an adult female killed by a vehicle on Springdale Road east of Fitzgerald River National Park in 1995. Although the central specimen was unsexed, a difference can be noted in the beaks. Further study of beaks of specimens from the Australian Museum and Museum of Victoria showed that the Torbay bird was a male.

Beaks of two of the specimens viewed from above showing the broad upper mandible ridge of the Torbay bird (top), and the sharper, narrower ridge of the Springhill bird. The Torbay specimen was used for display for many years.

Another South Australian Ground Parrot specimen

Above is a South Australian Ground Parrot specimen from the Liverpool Museum collection. In 1911 North split the Eastern and Western Ground Parrots into two species: Pezoporus wallicus and Pezoporus flaviventris . One of the taxonomic differences was broken barring across the chest and abdomen, supposed to occur in the Western birds only. Later, Ford (1968), showed that this and other differences were not consistent and the earlier classification of the same species right across Australia was reinstated with the birds of east and west having only a varietal dilineation: Pezoporus wallicus wallicus and Pezoporus wallicus flaviventris. Now, the first genetic analysis appears to indicate a full split into separate species is appropriate. See previous posting.

Photo supplied by Liverpool Museum and used with permission.

A Western Ground Parrot captured in 1988 as part of a radio-tracking project to study habitat use, in what later became part of Fitzgerald River National Park. This bird was later deduced to be a female, by comparison with sexed skins.

The South Australian Ground Parrot specimen from Liverpool Museum collection. This bird's beak appears very similar to that of the Western Australian bird above.

It is not known when the South Australian bird was collected, but the collector was recorded as Peele, and the skin was purchased by the Liverpool Museum in 1896 from Henry Baker Tristram. Before that it had been in the Singapore Museum. Henry Tristram was a Canon, an explorer, and an avid ornithologist. He was an early developer of ornithology as a science, an avid collector, a supporter of Darwin's Theory of evolution, and a founding member of the British Ornithological Union.

Photo supplied by Liverpool Museum and used with permission.

Reference: Ford, Julian. (1968). 'Distribution and taxonomic notes on some parrots from Western Australia.' South Australian Ornithologist, Volume 25, pp99-105.

South Australian Ground Parrot

South Australia no longer has Ground Parrots. At times, the South Australian birds have been considered closer to the Western Australian birds or perhaps part of a continuum across the continent. However the most recent study (Murphy et al. 2010) and the first using mitochondrial DNA analysis, places South Australian birds with the other Eastern States birds, and equally divergent from the Western Australian birds. It is likely that this separation of eastern and western populations occurred approximately 2 million years ago, probably caused by 'the onset of aridity in the median area'.

The actual specimen used in the genetic study was the specimen shown below which is held in the South Australian Museum. The photos were provided by the museum, and are used with permission.

 

 

Label: Swamp Parrot. snared with a loop snare  in the Reedy Field Reed beds S.A. by Tommy the Black Fellow in the lakes end of 1850 and preserved by Mr Wm White. 

to S.A. White (Different handwriting).

Reference: Murphy SA, Joseph L, Burbidge AH, Austin J (2010)A cryptic and critically endangered species revealed by mitochondrial DNA analyses: the Western Ground Parrot. Conservation Genetics. D01 10.1007/s10592-010-0161-1

Why there are no authentic Ground Parrot specimens from Perth

Ground Parrots were definitely in the Perth area in 1839 when the naturalist John Gilbert arrived in March, as he recorded the local aboriginal name for them:- Djar-doon- gur-ree. He spent the first three months collecting within 16 km of Perth.

In a letter to his employer, John Gould, dated 11 April, and sent on the Helen or Elen, he mentioned having obtained five species of parrot. There are six possibilities. The Red-capped Parrot is mentioned, and so is the Elegant Parrot. Additionally there could have been the Western Rosella, Regent Parrot, Australian Ringneck and Western Ground Parrot. He would not have been particularly excited by the ground parrot as he had previously collected some in Tasmania though doubtless he would have collected them in the Swan River area as he always strove for a comprehensive collection.

The first shipment of Gilbert's specimens out of Perth was on HMS Herald. Gilbert wrote to Gould on 20 May 1839 saying he had placed a box of birds on the Herald that same day in special care of one of the officers. Then she had departed before there was time to load on any mail. (She had arrived on 17 May so was in Gage Roads, Fremantle for only two days.) The box was probably addressed to John Gould in Hobart (or maybe Sydney) as the Herald was headed to Hobart and then Sydney before she embarked on a very adventurous voyage in the Pacific playing a key role in New Zealand history and taking part in the first of the Opium Wars.

Gilbert's letter of May 20 stated that the Box contained 203 specimens and 75 species of Birds, 2 reptiles, and a box with a nest of the Elegant Parrot (which proved to be incorrect.)

In a letter for Gould dated 3 September 1839, Gilbert states that he did not enclose any letter or paper in the box that was sent on the Herald, and he had not yet been advised that the box from the Herald had safely arrived. This letter was sent on the barque Elizabeth which was wrecked soon after leaving Fremantle. In the same letter of 3 September, Gilbert said that the list of specimens was to go on the Herald with the governor's despatches. These too missed the boat and were probably on the ill-fated barque Elizabeth.The mail was saved, dried out, and was to be put on the schooner Elizabeth. Not all of it would have been legible. Another letter from Gilbert to Gould written on 28 October 1839 was also to go on the schooner Elizabeth. By then Gilbert had 153 species of birds, some collected further inland than Perth.


If a Western Ground Parrot specimen had been amongst the collection placed on the Herald, and it very likely was, it would definitely be from Perth. Any Gilbert specimen dated between 6 March 1839 and 31 May would be from the Perth vicinity. In early June 1839, Gilbert had his first inland trip.  

Unfortunately, many of the original labels have been removed and the collection date and/or place lost.

Other specimens from other collectors with'Swan River' on the label are less likely to be authentically from the Swan River (Perth/Fremantle) vicinity.

False Trail

I hoped to be able to find a Western Ground Parrot specimen that could definitely be traced back to the Perth area.

When looking through the papers relating to John Gould in the National Library of Australia, Canberra, I came across an undated consignment list for shipment on the 'Madras', together with an envelope dated 28 Ju 1839 (MS 587/57). The letter was addressed to Mr Prince, John Gould's secretary. Amongst the specimens on the list were 2 Pezoporus formosus (Ground Parrots). 

Thanks to Clemency Fisher's paper* I knew that collector John Gilbert was in Western Australia in June 1839, and in fact had for most of the three months he had been there, collected in the vicinity of Perth. He had sent some specimens on the 'Herald' in May. Perhaps he had got another consignment away in June. However a search in the 'Shipping Intelligence' section of the newspaper of the day for a visit from the 'Madras' to Cockburn Sound in 1839, yielded nothing. Then I perused the species list more closely. First there was a list of 82 eggs. Gilbert had complained of finding no eggs in Western Australia - wrong season. Some of the skins also pointed away from Western Australia: Platycercus eximius (Eastern Rosella), Wattled plover (Masked Lapwing), and Pardalotus affinis (Tasmanian version of Striated Pardalote), for example.

So it was necessary to conclude that these specimens were sent from Tasmania, after Gilbert and Gould returned to Lauceston following their Bass Strait Islands collecting trip which ended in mid-January 1839. Gould set off for Hobart. John Gilbert left Launceston on the 'Comet' bound for the Swan River Colony on 4 February 1839. 

However in the two short weeks before departure he was able to pack a box of specimens and have it placed on the 'Madras' which was loading at the time. Below is an extract (OCR copy) from the 'Ship News' of The Cornwall Chronicle, Launceston's weekly paper, concerning the arrival of the 'Madras' on 24 November 1838. On 26th January, a note in the Chronicle said 'Madras' is fast completing her cargo and is expected to leave about mid-February. 

The date on the envelope was more to do with arrival in England than time of departure from Australia. The Ground Parrots in that consignment were undoubtably not from Western Australia.

*See previous posting

ARRIVALS.

Nov. 24. --- Madras (barque), 321 tons, W.

Henalker, master, from London— 1 cask British

goods, 1 crate ditto, 1 case silver plate, 88 cases

haberdashery, 41 bales ditto, 6 packages car.

riage, 3 packages British Roods, ♦ {packs ditto,

16 trunks ditto, 1 butt sherry, 1 butt pork, 84

eetkxbottled potter, SO hhds. stout, 17 casks

ale— 3. & D. Jlobertson; 8 bags nails, 2 cases

ironmongery, S7 packages British goods, 1 rase

ditto, 3 cases stationery, 4 cases books — F.

Palmer ; COO deals, 70 bhdn stout, 50 barrels

ale, 30 cash* vinegar, 10 torn iron tern-ing, 124

barrels pork, £6 cases British goods, IB bales

ditto,' 67 packages ditto, 20 buds, ale— Kerr,

Alexander. 4 Co. ; 40 packages a deal house, 7

packages British goods, I barrels ale — R. Spark ;

90 barrels port. 10 caws British goods £) hhfe.

ttout— Connolly & Co. ; 3 caws cigars 10 cases

wine, S pipes ditto, 10 obds. ditto, 10 quarter

casks ditto ? Order; 5 packages sundries — J.

Down i 1 caw British goods, 7 packages ditto,

S cask- ditto— J. Cameron ; 4 packages ditto— '

Smith, 'Revel), & Co. ; 12,000 staves — Willis,

Keogfci 4 Cd.j $8 packages wines 4 brandy;

SS quarter carts Tcnerifft— Order.

Passengers per Madrat, from London,

Mr. and Mrs. D. Robertson, 8 children and

servant ; Mr. and Mrs. Spark, 2 children and

servant ; Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, .Miss Palmer,

Miss E. Palmer, Mr. F. Palmer, Mr. W.

Palmer, Mr. C Palmer, Mr. A. Palmer and 4

children, Mr. and Mrs. Fairwcather. Mr. W.

Wood, Mr. Uncll, Mr. Greenhill, Mr. Canning,

Mr. Howard, Mr. H Howard.

When were the Wongan Hills ground parrot chicks collected?

HMS 'Beagle' on her second voyage. Accessed from Wikipedia.

If John Gilbert or one of his party did collect the Western Ground Parrot chicks on the sandplains near Wongan Hills, and it seems likely that he did (see previous posting), the question arises as to when, as the label is undated.

On 28 September 1842, John Gilbert collected a Western Grey kangaroo, a doe with a pouched young, on the 'sandplain near Wongan Hills', the same location as the chicks. Gilbert was keen to get to the Wongan Hills and the slow-moving party did get there the following day. The Western Grey kangaroos are housed in the Natural History Museum (NHM) with the numbers, 1844.2.15.5 and 7 (Fisher 2008). The ground parrot chicks are also in the NHM with the numbers 1844.2.15.96 and 97. This shows that they were part of the same batch of Gould specimens, registered on the same day.

It is known that a consignment of Gilbert's specimens was sent to England on the 'Beagle' though the accompanying list was lost. The 'Beagle' was on the last leg of her third voyage which had been an exploring and mapping trip around Australia. She sailed from Fremantle for England on 6 May 1843. (The 'Beagle's second voyage was the famous one bearing the naturalist Charles Darwin.)

Gilbert was in the Wongan Hills area a second time a year later, and the specimens from that visit as well as other expeditions were sent to Gould on the ship 'Napoleon' which left for England in January 1844. The trip to England took at least 4 months in those times so the specimens could not have been registered in the NHM by January 1844. Also the list of specimens sent via the 'Napoleon' has been found and does not include the chicks.

Although the specimen list was lost, it is known how many specimens were on the  'Beagle' as Gilbert compiled the totals for the two shipments (only mammals and birds shown here):

Totals   318 mammals   432 birds 
             232 mammals   200 birds 'Napoleon' (Whittell 1942)
              86 mammals    232 birds 'Beagle'

References

Fisher, Clemency (2008). A man of Great Zeal and Assiduity: the Pioneering Naturalist John Gilbert in Australia 1838-1845. In Contributions to the history of Australasian ornithology. Nuttall Ornithological Club, USA.

Whittell, H.C. (1942). A review of the work of John Gilbert in Western Australia Part 3. In Emu, 1942. Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, Australia.

Evidence that Gilbert collected the Wongan Hills WGP chicks

Below is a photo of a Black Honeyeater collected by John Gilbert, John Gould's collector in Australia, on October 29, 1843. The label written by John Gilbert shows clearly in the second photo. This specimen is held in the Liverpool Museum. The third photo is of the oldest label on the Western Ground Parrot nestlings that are housed in the Museum of Natural History.

John Gilbert usually documented his specimens, if not in a diary, in the consignment list when the specimens were shipped but no record has been found of the Wongan Hills chicks. Although there have been sight records of WGPs north of Perth, these are the only specimens collected north of Perth. When Liverpool Museum's Clemency Fisher (an eminent specialist in the collections of John Gilbert), saw the Wongan Hill chick label, she was confident it was written by John Gilbert. The label itself is the same type, and there are many points of similarity in the handwriting. The spelling of Wongan Hills is different. Gilbert was in the Wongan Hills area twice - in September and October 1842, and again the following spring when the Black Honeyeater was collected. A future posting will show that the WGPs would have been collected in 1842. Back then, on the first visit, it is not surprising that the spelling was different, as the area was being explored and spelling of the indigenous name had not been finalised.

Copyright Liverpool Museum

Copyright Liverpool Museum

Copyright British Museum