Text extracted from Gill B.J.; Bell, B.D.; Chambers, G.K.; Medway, D.G.; Palma, R.L.; Scofield, R.P.; Tennyson, A.J.D.; Worthy, T.H. 2010. Checklist of the of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica. 4th edition. Wellington, Te Papa Press and Ornithological Society of New Zealand. Pages 244 & 247.

Order COLUMBIFORMES: Pigeons and Doves Suborder COLUMBAE: Pigeons and Doves Family Illiger: Pigeons and Doves Columbini Illiger, 1811: Prodromus Syst. Mamm. Avium: 243 – Type Columba Linnaeus, 1758.

Recent classifications of pigeons (e.g. del Hoyo & Sargatal 1997) usually divide the family into five subfamilies: Columbinae Illiger, 1811 (mainly seed-eating pigeons); G.R. Gray, 1840 (fruit- eating pigeons); Gourinae G.R. Gray, 1840 (crowned pigeons); and the monotypic Otidiphapinae Verheyen, 1957 ( pigeon) and Didunculinae G.R. Gray, 1848 (Samoan tooth-billed pigeon). The and solitaire, often distinguished as the family Raphidae Wetmore, 1930, should be included within Columbidae (e.g. Kitchener 1993). Recent molecular studies by Johnson & Clayton (2000), Johnson et al. (2001) and Shapiro et al. (2002) show that all these taxa form a monophyletic clade, but do not support the division into the above subfamilies. Here we follow the generic order given by del Hoyo & Sargatal (1997). As both the ordinal status and subfamilial groupings are only partly supported by recent molecular work, future revisions of pigeon higher are likely. For this reason we refrain from using subfamilial groupings.

Gray (1862: 232) listed Phaps picata (Latham, 1802) (= Leucosarcia melanoleuca (Latham, 1802), wonga pigeon) and Phaps chalcoptera (Latham, 1790) (= common bronzewing) from Norfolk Island. These records have not been substantiated by specimens or by subsequent records of the same species on that island, so we have omitted them from the Norfolk Island list.

Genus Hemiphaga Bonaparte Hemiphaga Bonaparte, 1854: Compt. Rend. Séa. Acad. Sci., Paris 39: 1076 – Type species (by original designation) Columba novaeseelandiae Gmelin = Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae (Gmelin).

Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae (Gmelin) New Zealand Pigeon Columba novae Seelandiae Gmelin, 1789: Syst. Nat., 13th edition 1(2): 773. Based on the “New-Zealand Pigeon” of Latham 1783, Gen. Synop. Birds 2(2): 640 – Dusky Sound, Fiordland. Columba zealandica Latham, 1790: Index Ornith. 2: 603 – New Zealand. Columba argetraea J.R. Forster, 1794: Mag. merkwürdigen neuen Reise Beschreibungen 11(3): 313, footnote – New Zealand and Norfolk Island, restricted to Dusky Sound, Fiordland (fide Steinheimer et al. 2008, Notornis 55(1): 35). Columba argetraea J.R. Forster, 1844: in M.H.C. Lichtenstein, Descrip. Animalium: 80 – South Island. Junior primary homonym of Columba argetraea J.R. Forster, 1794. Hemiphaga novae-zealandiae (Gmelin); Bonaparte, 1854: Compt. Rend. Séa. Acad. Sci., Paris 39: 1077. Unjustified emendation. Columba Novae-Zealandiae Gmelin; Ellman 1861, Zoologist 19: 7467. Unjustified emendation. Carpophaga novae zealandiae (Gmelin); Buller 1873, History of the Birds of N.Z., 1st edition: 157. Unjustified emendation. Carpophaga Novae Zealandiae (Gmelin); Buller 1876, Trans. Proc. N.Z. Inst. 8: 196. Unjustified emendation. Carpophaga novae-zealandiae (Gmelin); Buller 1896, Trans. Proc. N.Z. Inst. 28: 347. Unjustified emendation. Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae novaeseelandiae (Gmelin); Checklist Committee 1953, Checklist N.Z. Birds: 53. Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae (Gmelin); Holdaway, Worthy & Tennyson 2001, New Zealand Journ. Zool. 28(2): 134, 179.

New Zealand: North and South Islands, Stewart Island / Rakiura, and most of the large offshore islands. Common and widespread in native forests and remnants throughout range, including suburban areas. Holocene fossil and midden records from numerous sites. A 19th-Century report of large pigeons on Raoul Island, Kermadec Group (Cheeseman 1891), has been supported by the recent discovery of a bone in Polynesian middens, which was referred to H. novaeseelandiae (Worthy & Brassey 2000).