page_title: Regent parrot
section_title: Taxonomy
hierarchical_section_title: Regent parrot / Taxonomy
caption_attribution_description: JPALi^ O MN1 S AI TMO IP.E F ~h IT 8 Blofsom- feathered Parrakeet.
context_page_description: The regent parrot or rock pebbler is a bird found in southern Australia. It has predominantly yellow plumage with a green tail. The bird is found primarily in eucalyptus groves and other wooded areas of subtropical southwestern Australia, as well as in a smaller area of subtropical and temperate southeastern Australia. Seeds make up the bulk of its diet.
context_section_description: A species of Psittaculidae, allied to the tribe Polytelini, a sister taxon to Polytelis swainsonii, the superb parrot, and P. alexandrae, the princess parrot.  The epithet anthopeplus is derived from ancient Greek, a compound of anthos, flower, and peplos, robe.
  There are two populations, morphologically similar though isolated, within the species distribution range of Southern Australia. 
  These are described as subspecies:
  Polytelis anthopeplus anthopeplus, Southwest Australia
  Polytelis anthopeplus monarchoides Schodde, 1993. Southeast Australia
  The regent parrot was first depicted by English author and artist Edward Lear in 1831. Lear included two images in Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or parrots, an early folio of lithographs with brief captions. The first plate reproduced a female specimen, given the title Palæornis anthopeplus (1831), the second was a male, Palæornis melanura (pt. 12, 1832), drawn by Lear in England. The regional origin of the parrots, presented as two species, is not supplied in the work, so the type specimen or locality for each was not formally nominated and assumed to be lost. A 1912 review by G. M. Mathews stated the source of the specimens was New South Wales, and occurred in a range that excluded the Southwest of the country. When correcting this omission, Mathews proposed the taxa named anthopeplus and melanura in Lear's folio was only found in the east and that the southwest population was a new taxon, nominated westralis. The arrangement and typification of the geographically separate groups was largely ignored by authors, until Richard Schodde published a conclusion that the origin of both Lear's specimens were from a Western Australian population, based on differences in colouration of the female plumage which he observed in the plates. Further evidence was provided by examining any possible collection and transport of the species to England, living or skinned, a possible holotype held at the Liverpool Museum, and comparison other collected data. Subsequently, the nominate subspecies of the West became P. a. anthopeplus and the eastern isolate was given a neotype and assigned to subspecies P. anthopeplus monarchoides.
  The parrot is also known variously as the rock pebbler, rock peplar, Murray smoker, Marlock parakeet, yellow king-parrot and regent parakeet. Lear's illustrations are captioned with Blossom-feathered Parrakeet to Palæornis anthopeplus and Black-tailed Parrakeet to P. melanura.
  The indigenous names for the southwest subspecies in the Nyungar language, noted by Dom Serventy, include Waukanga and Wouk-un-ga, and Walkinger recorded at Avon River. A recommended orthography and pronunciation list of the region's bird names has proposed the adoption of common names yalop [yaw’lawp] and wookonga [woo’kawng’a] for this subspecies.
caption: "Palæornis anthopeplus Blossom-feathered Parrakeet", the image that sees Lear cited as the author of the first description.
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