Tag Archives: Turnix varius ssp. novaecaledoniae Ogilvie-Grant

Turnix novaecaledoniae Ogilvie-Grant

New Caledonian Buttonquail (Turnix novaecaledoniae)

The New Caledonian Buttonquail is known only by the single type specimen, a male that was apparently found on Grande Terre, New Caledonia sometimes before 1889; the species is also known by numerous subfossil remains that were recovered from cave deposits.

The species reached a size of about 19 cm. 

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The New Caledonian Buttonquail is sometimes considered a subspecies of the Painted Buttonquail (Turnix varius (Latham)) from Australia, but being clearly very distinct from that species it is now considered a full species.

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References:

[1] Stuart H. M. Butchart; Stephen Lowe; Rob W. Martin; Andy Symes; James R. S. Westrip; Hannah Wheatley: Which bird species have gone extinct? A novel quantitative classification approach. Biological Conservation 227: 9-18. 2018

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edited: 03.10.2020