The Madagascar green pigeon (''Treron australis'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family

Columbidae Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

. It is found in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...

, and

Mayotte Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loc ...

. The

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

''griveaudi'', by most authorities considered a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of the Madagascan green pigeon, is sometimes considered a separate species, the Comoros green pigeon (''Treron comorensis''). Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are

subtropical or tropical dry forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

and

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discont ...

Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist

Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher. Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published works ...

included a description of the Madagascar green pigeon in his ''Ornithologie'' based on specimen that he had examined. He used the French name ''Le pigeon ramier verd de Madagascar'' and the Latin ''Palumbus viridis madagascariensis''. The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen. The species was also illustrated in Edme-Louis Daubenton's ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle''. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the

binomial system The binomial system ( es, Sistema binominal) is a voting system that was used in the legislative elections of Chile between 1989 and 2013. From an electoral system point of view, the binomial system is in effect the D'Hondt method with an ope ...

and are not recognised by the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

. When the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

revised his ''

Mantissa Plantarum Mantissa () may refer to: * Mantissa (logarithm), the fractional part of the common (base-10) logarithm * Mantissa (floating point number), the significant digits of a floating-point number or a number in scientific notation, also called the ''sig ...

'' in 1771 he added an appendix which included a description of the Madagascar green pigeon. He coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Columba australis'' and cited the earlier authors. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''australis'' is the Latin word for "southern". The species is now placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Treron ''Treron'' is a genus of bird in the pigeon family Columbidae. Its members are commonly called green pigeons. The genus is distributed across Asia and Africa. This genus contains 30 species, remarkable for their green coloration, hence the common ...

'' that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot. Two subspecies are recognised: * ''T. a. xenius'' Salomonsen, 1934 – west Madagascar * ''T. a. australis'' ( Linnaeus, 1771) – east Madagascar

References

Madagascar green pigeon The Madagascar green pigeon (''Treron australis'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in Madagascar, Comoros, and Mayotte. The taxon ''griveaudi'', by most authorities considered a subspecies of the Madagascan green pig ...

Birds of the Comoros Birds of Madagascar Birds of Mayotte

Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Madagascar dry deciduous forests Fauna of the Madagascar lowland forests Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Columbiformes-stub