About: Réunion Parrot

Description
Metadata
Settings
- owl:sameAs
- Inference Rule:

About: Réunion Parrot Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

The Réunion parrot or Dubois's parrot (Necropsittacus? borbonicus), is a hypothetical extinct species of parrot based on descriptions of birds from the Mascarene island of Réunion. Its existence has been inferred from the travel report of Dubois in 1674 who described it as having a "Body the size of a large pigeon, green; head, tail and upper part of wings the colour of fire." No remains have been found of this supposed species, and its existence seems doubtful.

Attributes	Values
rdfs:label	Réunion Parrot
rdfs:comment	The Réunion parrot or Dubois's parrot (Necropsittacus? borbonicus), is a hypothetical extinct species of parrot based on descriptions of birds from the Mascarene island of Réunion. Its existence has been inferred from the travel report of Dubois in 1674 who described it as having a "Body the size of a large pigeon, green; head, tail and upper part of wings the colour of fire." No remains have been found of this supposed species, and its existence seems doubtful.
dcterms:subject	Animalia Chordata Extinct Species Aves dbkwik:resource/7lGsLlnYuaySHdZXdk5Dfg== Psittacidae Psittaciformes Bird Extinctions Since 1500 Controversial bird taxa Necropsittacus Animals Described in 1907 Birds of Réunion
statusimage	EX
dbkwik:animals/pro...iPageUsesTemplate	dbkwik:resource/vvlgqyJtXMVaJ5-iejkJeg==
Status	Extinct
Name	Réunion Parrot
Caption	Restoration of the Réunion Parrot by Henrik Grönvold
Species	†Necropsittacus? borbonicus
Genus	†Necropsittacus?
Class	Aves
OtherName	Dubois's Parrot
Family	dbkwik:resource/bKXU0I3_4WoRQtreKTDZpw== dbkwik:resource/ps_U0YcZYV71EJEeSRIYZA== dbkwik:resource/ZEP1WxMXd7qJvbtqOUye2w==
Order	Psittaciformes
Phylum	Chordata
Location	Mascarene island of Réunion.
abstract	The Réunion parrot or Dubois's parrot (Necropsittacus? borbonicus), is a hypothetical extinct species of parrot based on descriptions of birds from the Mascarene island of Réunion. Its existence has been inferred from the travel report of Dubois in 1674 who described it as having a "Body the size of a large pigeon, green; head, tail and upper part of wings the colour of fire." No remains have been found of this supposed species, and its existence seems doubtful. The bird was scientifically described by Rothschild as Necropsittacus borbonicus, thinking it was a congener of the Rodrigues parrot. Additionally, Rothschild named a third "species" of the genus Necropsittacus, colored like Dubois' birds but with entirely green wings and supposedly from Mauritius, as Necropsittacus francicus. This seems to have been merely based on the confused or even unconsciously fraudulent (Rothschild was prone to describing extinct "species" from the slightest hint of their possible existence) reading of Dubois' report; there is no indication that such birds ever occurred on Mauritius. As Dubois unequivocally stated that the red-and-green birds were smaller than pigeons, and thus it is unlikely that these birds were closely allied with the much larger Rodrigues parrot. It has been hypothesized that the reports refer to an escaped pet or feral birds, but no explanation brought forth this far seems very convincing, with Greenway's (1967) theory that Dubois' description was based on a pet Lorius (lory), for example, being ignorant of the fact that the distribution of green and red in this genus is exactly the other way around. Alternatively, Dubois might have seen a specimen of the Réunion parakeet - likewise not known from bones, but a much more plausible hypothetical form - with an aberrant coloration. All that can be said is that Dubois' testimony is the only "evidence" on which this supposed species was founded, and that judging from its size it was almost certainly not a Necropsittacus, if it indeed existed as a distinct species. The colored plate in Rothschild, while of the same high artistic standard as all in this work, is entirely conjectural and obviously not accurate insofar as it shows a bird with the large-headed, massive-billed shape of the Rodrigues parrot combined with the color pattern described by Dubois.

OpenLink Virtuoso version 07.20.3217, on Linux (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu), Standard Edition
Data on this page belongs to its respective rights holders.
Virtuoso Faceted Browser Copyright © 2009-2012 OpenLink Software