The Grand Cayman thrush (''Turdus ravidus'') is an extinct bird from the

thrush ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...

family (Turdidae). It was endemic to the island of Grand Cayman in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

Description

It was generally ashy grey with a white underbelly. Undertail coverts and the tips of the outer tail feathers were coloured white too. Exposed skin was red on the bill, feet, and around the eye. The wing length was 13.5 centimetres and the length of the tail was 11 centimetres. The bill reached a length of 2.4 centimetres and the legs were about 3.8 centimetres long.

Habitat

Its habitat was in the north and north-east of Grand Cayman. It consisted of swamps and mangroves with poisonous

manchineel tree The manchineel tree (''Hippomane mancinella'') is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae). Its native range stretches from tropical southern North America to northern South America. The name "manchineel" (sometimes spe ...

s (''Hippomane mancinella'') as well as of areas with knife-edged coral rocks and the climbing cactus (''

Epiphyllum hookeri ''Epiphyllum hookeri'' is a species of climbing cactus in the ''Epiphyllum'' genus. It forms showy white flowers and is native from Mexico through Central America to Venezuela. A perennial, it was introduced to Florida and some West Indies, West ...

'').

Extinction

Charles B. Cory described them as common in 1886 but shortly after its discovery, it became a favorite object for bird collectors. Twenty-one specimens were collected on four occasions in total. The first four specimens were taken in August 1886. Another three were killed in 1892 and one female was obtained in 1896. Finally, thirteen specimens were shot between April and July 1916 by bird collector W. W. Brown, Jr. Suddenly this bird was vanished and several surveys to find this species again have failed until zoologist C. Bernard Lewis observed one individual north of East End in the eastern of Grand Cayman in the summer of 1938. This was the last reliable report of a living Grand Cayman thrush. Causes of its extinction were most likely deforestation and the destroying of its habitat by hurricanes between 1932 and 1944. Stuffed specimens can be seen in the following museums: six in the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

in Chicago, one in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, two in the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, one in the Natural History Museum of Berlin, seven in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, one in the Natural History Museum in London, one in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. and one in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

References

* *Cory, C. B. 1886a. Descriptions of thirteen new species of birds from the island of Grand Cayman. Auk 3:497-501. *Bond, James (1956): Checklist of the Birds of the West Indies * Greenway, James C. (1967): Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World *Fuller, Errol (2000): Extinct Birds *Flannery, Tim & Schouten, Peter (2001): A Gap in Nature {{Taxonbar, from=Q258474 Birds described in 1886 Taxa named by Charles B. Cory Bird extinctions since 1500 Endemic fauna of the Cayman Islands Birds of the Cayman Islands Extinct birds of the Caribbean Turdus