Mauritius blue pigeon
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The Mauritius blue pigeon (''Alectroenas nitidissimus'') is an
extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of blue pigeon formerly
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to the
Mascarene The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Their ...
island of
Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
in the
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
east of
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 ...
. It has two extinct relatives from the Mascarenes and three extant ones from other islands. It is the
type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
of 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 ...
of blue pigeons, ''Alectroenas''. It had white
hackles Hackles are the erectile plumage or hair in the neck area of some birds and mammals. In birds, the hackle is the group of feathers found along the back and side of the neck. The hackles of some types of chicken, particularly roosters, are long, ...
around the head, neck and breast and blue plumage on the body, and it was red on the tail and the bare parts of the head. These colours were thought similar to those of the
Dutch flag The national flag of the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlandse vlag) is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue. The current design originates as a variant of the late 16th century orange-white-blue '' Prinsenvlag'' ("Prince's Flag"), evo ...
, a resemblance reflected in its French common name, ''Pigeon Hollandais''. The juveniles may have been partially green. It was 30 cm (12 in) long and larger and more robust than any other blue pigeon species. It fed on fruits, nuts, and
molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil sp ...
, and was once widespread in the forests of Mauritius. The bird was first mentioned in the 17th century and was described several times thereafter, but very few accounts describe the behaviour of living specimens. The oldest record of the species is two sketches from a 1601–1603 ship's journal. Several stuffed specimens reached Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, while only three stuffed specimens exist today. A live bird kept in the Netherlands around 1790 was long thought to have been a Mauritius blue pigeon, but examination of illustrations depicting it have shown it was most likely a Seychelles blue pigeon. The species is thought to have become extinct in the 1830s due to
deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...
and predation.


Taxonomy

The oldest record of the Mauritius blue pigeon is two sketches in the 1601–1603 journal of the Dutch ship ''Gelderland''. The birds appear to have been freshly killed or stunned. The drawings were made by the Dutch artist Joris Joostensz Laerle on
Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
, but were not published until 1969. François Cauche in 1651 briefly mentioned "white, black and red turtle doves", encountered in 1638, which is thought to be the first unequivocal mention of the bird. The next account is that of Jean-François Charpentier de Cossigny in the mid-18th century. The French naturalist
Pierre Sonnerat Pierre Sonnerat (18 August 1748 – 31 March 1814) was a French natural history, naturalist, colonial administrator, writer and List of explorers, explorer. He described numerous species of plants and animals on his travels and is honoured in th ...
described the bird in 1782, calling it ''Pigeon Hollandais'' (Dutch pigeon), a French
vernacular name A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
that derives from its red, white, and blue colouration, reminiscent of the
Dutch flag The national flag of the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlandse vlag) is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue. The current design originates as a variant of the late 16th century orange-white-blue '' Prinsenvlag'' ("Prince's Flag"), evo ...
(the French flag did not have these colours before the 1789 revolution). He had collected two specimens during a voyage in 1774. These
syntype In biological nomenclature, a syntype is any one of two or more biological types that is listed in a description of a taxon where no holotype was designated. Precise definitions of this and related terms for types have been established as part of ...
specimens were deposited in the
Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...
in Paris. By 1893, only one of them, specimen MNHN n°C.G. 2000–727, still existed, and had been damaged by
sulphuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...
in an attempt at
fumigation Fumigation is a method of pest control or the removal of harmful micro-organisms by completely filling an area with gaseous pesticides—or fumigants—to suffocate or poison the pests within. It is used to control pests in buildings (s ...
. Since Sonnerat named and described them in French, the scientific naming of the bird was left to the Tyrolean naturalist
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italian physician and natural history, naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational ...
, who did not observe a specimen himself, but Latinised Sonnerat's description in 1786. He named the bird ''Columba nitidissima'', which means "most brilliant pigeon". The German naturalist
Johann Friedrich Gmelin , fields = , workplaces = University of GöttingenUniversity of Tübingen , alma_mater = University of Tübingen , doctoral_advisor = Philipp Friedrich GmelinFerdinand Christoph Oetinger , academic_advisors = , doctora ...
described the bird with the species name ''franciae'' (referring to France) in 1789, and the French naturalist
Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre Abbé Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre (1752, Aveyron – 20 September 1804, Saint-Geniez-d'Olt) was a French zoology, zoologist who contributed sections on cetaceans, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects to the ''Tableau encyclopéd ...
used the name ''batavica'' (referring to
Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
) in his 1790 description. In 1840 the English zoologist
George Robert Gray George Robert Gray FRS (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years. He was the younger brother o ...
named a new
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 ...
, ''
Alectroenas The blue pigeons are a genus, ''Alectroenas'', of birds in the dove and pigeon family Columbidae. They are native to islands in the western Indian Ocean. Taxonomy and evolution The genus ''Alectroenas'' was first described in 1840 by the English ...
'', for the Mauritius blue pigeon; ' in Greek means domestic cock, and ''oinas'' means
dove 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 ...
. ''Alectroenas nitidissima'' is the
type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
of the genus, which includes all blue pigeons. The specific name was emended from ''A. nitidissimus'' to ''A. nitidissima'' by the
IOC World Bird List ''Birds of the World: Recommended English Names'' is a paperback book, written by Frank Gill and Minturn Wright on behalf of the International Ornithologists' Union. The book is an attempt to produce a standardized set of English names for all b ...
in 2012. Another skin arrived at the Paris museum in 1800, collected by Colonel M. Mathieu for the French ornithologist
Louis Dufresne Louis Dufresne (18 January 1752, Champien, near Peronne – 11 October 1832) was a French ornithologist and taxidermist. Louis Dufresne was one of the naturalists on board the ''Astrolabe'', which accompanied by the ''Boussole'', left Brest in A ...
. It was sold in 1819 among other items, was sent to
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, and is now in the
National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...
as specimen MU No. 624. It was not identified as a Mauritius blue pigeon until the British ornithologist
Alfred Newton Alfred Newton Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE (11 June 18297 June 1907) was an England, English zoology, zoologist and ornithology, ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Amo ...
saw it in 1879. The last specimen recorded was shot in
Savanne Savanne () or Savannah is a district of Mauritius, situated in the south of the island. The district has an area of 244.8 km2 and the population estimate was at 68,585 as at 31 December 2015. The southern part of the island is one of the most sce ...
in 1826 and given to
Julien Desjardins Julien François Desjardins (27 July 1799, Centre de Flacq – 18 April 1840, Paris) was a French zoologist, the son of Julien Jouan Desjardins (1766–1853) and Henriette Émilie Marcotte. He married Julie Renée Maréchal, his first cousin by his ...
, founder of the Mauritius Natural History Museum in
Port Louis Port Louis (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's ec ...
, where it is still located, though in poor condition. Only these three taxidermic specimens still exist.
Subfossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...
remains of the Mauritius blue pigeon were collected in the
Mare aux Songes The Mare aux Songes () swamp is a lagerstätte located close to the sea in south eastern Mauritius. Many subfossils of recently extinct animals have accumulated in the swamp, which was once a lake, and some of the first subfossil remains of dodos w ...
swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...
by Théodore Sauzier in 1889. More were collected by Etienne Thirioux around 1900. They are thought to have been found near
Le Pouce Le Pouce (; English: "The Thumb") is the third highest mountain in Mauritius, at 812 meters (2664 feet). Only Piton de la Petite Rivière Noire (828 m) and Pieter Both (820 m) are taller. It is named Le Pouce because of the thumb-shaped peak of ...
mountain and Plaine des Roches.


Evolution

''Alectroenas'' blue pigeons are closely interrelated and occur widely throughout islands in the western
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
. They are
allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...
and can therefore be regarded as a superspecies. There are three extant species: the
Madagascar blue pigeon The Madagascar blue pigeon (''Alectroenas madagascariensis'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. The species is closely related to the other two extant species of blue pigeon, the Comoros blue pigeon and the Seychelles blue pigeon. I ...
(''A. madagascariensis''), the Comoros blue pigeon (''A. sganzini''), and the Seychelles blue pigeon (''A. pulcherrima''). The three
Mascarene The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Their ...
islands were each home to a species, all of which are extinct: the Mauritius blue pigeon, the
Rodrigues blue pigeon The Rodrigues blue pigeon (''Alectroenas payandeei'') is an extinct species of blue pigeon which was endemic to Rodrigues. It is known only from the holotype tarsometatarsus collected in 2005, associated with remains of a Rodrigues night heron an ...
(''A. payandeei''), and the Réunion blue pigeon (''A.'' sp.). Compared with other pigeons, the blue pigeons are medium to large, stocky, and have longer wings and tails. All the species have distinct mobile
hackles Hackles are the erectile plumage or hair in the neck area of some birds and mammals. In birds, the hackle is the group of feathers found along the back and side of the neck. The hackles of some types of chicken, particularly roosters, are long, ...
on the head and neck. The
tibiotarsus The tibiotarsus is the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird. It is the fusion of the proximal part of the tarsus with the tibia. A similar structure also occurred in the Mesozoic Heterodontosauridae. These sm ...
is comparatively long and the
tarsometatarsus The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is only found in the lower leg of birds and some non-avian dinosaurs. It is formed from the fusion of several bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsus (ankle bones) and meta ...
short. The blue pigeons may have colonised the Mascarenes, the
Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...
or a now submerged
hot spot island In geology, hotspots (or hot spots) are volcanic locales thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the surrounding mantle. Examples include the Hawaii, Iceland, and Yellowstone hotspots. A hotspot's position on ...
by "island hopping". They may have evolved into a distinct genus there before reaching
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 ...
. Their closest genetic relative is the
cloven-feathered dove The cloven-feathered dove (''Drepanoptila holosericea'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Drepanoptila'', but this genus is possibly better merged into ''Ptilinopus''.Gibb, G.C., & D. Penny (2010). ...
of
New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...
(''Drepanoptila holosericea''), from which they separated 8–9 million years ago. Their ancestral group appears to be the
fruit doves The fruit doves, also known as fruit pigeons, are a genus (''Ptilinopus'') of birds in the pigeon and dove family (Columbidae). These colourful, frugivorous doves are found in forests and woodlands in Southeast Asia and Oceania. It is a large gen ...
(''Ptilinopus'') of
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
and
Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...
.


Misidentified records

A blue pigeon recorded as being from Mauritius was brought to the Netherlands around 1790, where it survived in the
menagerie A menagerie is a collection of captive animals, frequently exotic, kept for display; or the place where such a collection is kept, a precursor to the modern Zoo, zoological garden. The term was first used in 17th-century France, in reference to ...
of
William V, Prince of Orange William V (Willem Batavus; 8 March 1748 – 9 April 1806) was a prince of Orange and the last stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. He went into exile to London in 1795. He was furthermore ruler of the Principality of Orange-Nassau until his death in ...
for three months before dying of
oedema Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels tight, the area ma ...
. The only known life drawings thought to show the species depict this individual; they were drawn by the Dutch artist Gijsbertus Haasbroek and first published by Piet Tuijn in 1969 (along with the ''Gelderland'' sketches). The illustrations show a displaying male raising its hackles into a
ruff Ruff may refer to: Places *Ruff, Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community *Ruff, Washington, United States, an unincorporated community Other uses *Ruff (bird) (''Calidris pugnax'' or ''Philomachus pugnax''), a bird in the wader fami ...
. This is a characteristic behaviour of other blue pigeons, too, and they can also vibrate their hackles. The director of the menagerie, Arnout Vosmaer, wrote a description of this individual on the back of the coloured drawing, stating it was called "''Pavillons Hollandais''", could turn its head-feathers upwards like a collar, and made
call Call or Calls may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Call, a type of betting in poker * Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage Music and dance * Call (band), from Lahore, Paki ...
s sounding like "baf baf", as well as a cooing sound. Unlike the three surviving skins of Mauritius blue pigeons, Haasbroek's illustration shows a red forehead. Both sexes of the Seychelles blue pigeon also have red foreheads, and the English palaeontologist
Julian P. Hume Julian Pender Hume (born 3 March 1960) is an English palaeontologist, artist and writer who lives in Wickham, Hampshire. He was born in Ashford, Kent, and grew up in Portsmouth, England. He attended Crookhorn Comprehensive School between 1971 an ...
suggested that the image depicts a male, which was described as "infinitely more handsome" than the female by Cossigny in the mid-18th century. Hume therefore interpreted the three surviving skins as belonging to female specimens. In 2020, the Dutch researcher and artist Ria Winters noted that the depicted bird was in fact a Seychelles blue pigeon. The British ecologist
Anthony S. Cheke Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a ''gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton, ...
elaborated on this point in 2020 (after a third Haasbroek illustration of this individual resurfaced at an auction), and noted that because one of Haasbroek's paintings was originally published in
monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...
in 1969, this may have blinded later researchers, even when the coloured version resurfaced. Cheke found it perfectly clear that the colouration was consistent with a Seychelles blue pigeon, as its tail is dark blue instead of red, and the crown is red instead of white. Cheke also suggested that the name "''Pavillons Hollandais''" mentioned by Vosmaer was a corruption of ''pigeon hollandais'', the name also used for the Mauritius blue pigeon, as both species have the red, white and blue colours similar to the Dutch flag. While Vosmaer's record of the bird coming from Mauritius was misleading, it may have been correct since it was probably shipped from the Seychelles via Mauritius, and would likely therefore have been reported as such (the Seychelles were a dependency of Mauritius at the time).


Description

The feathers on the head, neck and breast of the Mauritius blue pigeon were silvery white, long, stiffened and pointed, especially around the neck. A patch of bright red, naked skin surrounded the eyes, and extended across the cheeks to the beak, which was greenish with a dark tip. The plumage of the body was
indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
, and the back,
scapular feathers The following is a list of terms used in bird topography: Plumage features * Glossary_of_bird_terms#B, Back * Abdomen#Vertabrates, Belly * Breast * Cheek * Chin * Crest (feathers), Crest * Crown (anatomy), Crown * Crown patch * Ear-coverts * ...
and wings were metallic blue. The bases of the outer
rectrices Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tail ...
were partially blackish blue. The tail feathers and tail
coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are sm ...
were
maroon Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown". According to multiple dictionaries, there are var ...
. The bill was greenish with a darker tip, and the legs were dark slate-grey. The
iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...
was reddish orange and had an inner yellow ring. The bird was 30 cm (12 in) in length, the wings were 208 mm (8.2 in), the tail was 132 mm (5.2 in), the culmen was 25 mm (1 in), and the tarsals were 28 mm (1.10 in). It was the largest and most robust member of its genus, and the hackles were longer and covered a larger area than in other blue pigeons. A Mauritian woman recalling observations of Mauritius blue pigeons around 1815 mentioned green as one of its colours. Juvenile Seychelles and Comoro blue pigeons have green feathers, so this may also have been the case for juvenile Mauritian pigeons. Some depictions and descriptions have shown the legs of Mauritius blue pigeons as red, like those of the Madagascar blue pigeon. The legs of the Paris specimen were painted red when the original colour faded, presumably on the basis of such accounts. The legs of the two other surviving specimens have not been painted and have faded to a yellowish brown. This feature is not mentioned in contemporary accounts, and such depictions are thought to be erroneous. Some modern illustrations of the bird have also depicted it with facial
crenulation In a geological context, crenulation or crenulation cleavage is a fabric formed in metamorphic rocks such as phyllite, schist and some gneiss by two or more stress directions causing the formation of the superimposed foliations. Formation Crenula ...
s, like those of the Seychelles blue pigeon. This feature was unknown from contemporary accounts, until the 1660s report of Johannes Pretorius about his stay on Mauritius was published in 2015, where he mentioned the bird's "warty face".


Behaviour and ecology

Few descriptions of the behaviour of Mauritius blue pigeons are known; unpublished notes by Desjardins are now lost. The bird probably lived in pairs or small groups in humid, mountainous
evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, Live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zone ...
s, like their extant relatives. Subfossil remains have been found in mid-west, mid-east and south-east Mauritius, indicating that the bird was once widespread. By 1812, the French naturalist Jacques Gérard Milbert stated that solitary individuals were found in river valleys. They probably became rarer during French rule in Mauritius (1715–1810), as lowland areas of the island were almost completely
deforested Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...
during this time. Many other endemic species of Mauritius became extinct after the arrival of humans, so the
ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
of the island is severely damaged and hard to reconstruct. Before humans arrived, forests covered Mauritius entirely, but very little remains today because of deforestation. The surviving endemic fauna is still seriously threatened. The Mauritius blue pigeon lived alongside other recently extinct Mauritian birds such as the
dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...
, the
red rail The red rail (''Aphanapteryx bonasia'') is an extinct species of flightless rail. It was endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. It had a close relative on Rodrigues island, the likewise extinct R ...
, the
Mascarene grey parakeet The Mascarene grey parakeet or Thirioux's grey parrot (''Psittacula bensoni''), is an extinct species of parrot which was endemic to the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius and Réunion in the western Indian Ocean. It has been classified as a member ...
, the
broad-billed parrot The broad-billed parrot or raven parrot (''Lophopsittacus mauritianus'') is a large extinct parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It was endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. It is unclear what othe ...
, the Mauritius scops owl, the Mascarene coot, the Mauritian shelduck, the
Mauritian duck The Mascarene teal (''Anas theodori''), also known as Sauzier's teal and Mauritian duck, is an extinct dabbling duck that formerly occurred on the islands of Mauritius and Réunion. Taxonomy The reports of Bernardin and (1710) Antoíne Bouch ...
and the
Mauritius night heron The Mauritius night heron (''Nycticorax mauritianus'') is an extinct night heron species from Mauritius. It is only known by seven subfossil bone remains consisted of cranium, pelvis, coracoid, ulna, radius, and tarsometatarsus found in Mare ...
. Extinct Mauritian reptiles include the
saddle-backed Mauritius giant tortoise The saddle-backed Mauritius giant tortoise (''Cylindraspis inepta'') is an extinct species of giant tortoise in the family Testudinidae. It was endemic to Mauritius. The last records of this tortoise date to the early 18th century. Descripti ...
, the
domed Mauritius giant tortoise The domed Mauritius giant tortoise (''Cylindraspis triserrata'') is an extinct species of giant tortoise. It was endemic to Mauritius. Description One of two different giant tortoise species which were endemic to Mauritius, this domed species s ...
, the Mauritian giant skink and the
Round Island burrowing boa The Round Island burrowing boa (''Bolyeria multocarinata'') is an extinct species of snake, in the monotypic genus ''Bolyeria'', in the family Bolyeriidae. The species, which was endemic to Mauritius, was last seen on Round Island in 1975. There ...
. The
small Mauritian flying fox The small Mauritian flying fox or dark flying fox (''Pteropus subniger''), known as a ''rougette'' to early French travelers, is an extinct species of megabat. It lived on the islands of Réunion and Mauritius in the Mascarene Islands of the Indi ...
and the snail ''
Tropidophora carinata ''Tropidophora carinata'' is a species of land snail with a gill and an operculum, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Pomatiidae. This species was found in Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Ma ...
'' lived on Mauritius and Réunion but became extinct in both islands. Some plants, such as ''
Casearia tinifolia ''Casearia tinifolia'' was a species of flowering plant in the family Salicaceae. It was Endemism, endemic to Mauritius. References

Casearia, tinifolia Endemic flora of Mauritius Extinct plants Extinct biota of Africa Taxonomy articles c ...
'' and the palm orchid, have also become extinct.


Diet

Fruits and nuts were probably the mainstay of the Mauritius blue pigeon's diet, and like other blue pigeons, it may have occupied the upper
canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...
, and migrated seasonally to where food was available. Cossigny dissected a specimen in the mid-18th century and later sent it and its stomach contents to the French scientist
René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (; 28 February 1683, La Rochelle – 17 October 1757, Saint-Julien-du-Terroux) was a French entomologist and writer who contributed to many different fields, especially the study of insects. He introduced t ...
with a letter describing his findings. The
gizzard The gizzard, also referred to as the ventriculus, gastric mill, and gigerium, is an organ found in the digestive tract of some animals, including archosaurs (pterosaurs, crocodiles, alligators, dinosaurs, birds), earthworms, some gastropods, so ...
and
crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...
contained four "nuts", which Cossigny was told were the seeds of either '' Calophyllum tacamahaca'' or ''
Labourdonnaisia calophylloides ''Labourdonnaisia calophylloides'' is a species of plant in the family Sapotaceae native to the islands of Mauritius and Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Description It reaches heights of 20 meters in the wild, and it develops a very characteristi ...
''. The Comoro and Seychelles blue pigeons also feed on ''C. tacamahaca'', and the strong gizzard of the former helps in the digestion of the seeds. In 1812 Jacques Gérard Milbert provided the only description of the behaviour of the bird in the wild: The claim that the bird fed on river
molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil sp ...
was criticised by the French zoologists
Alphonse Milne-Edwards Alphonse Milne-Edwards (Paris, 13 October 1835 – Paris, 21 April 1900) was a French mammalogist, ornithologist, and carcinologist. He was English in origin, the son of Henri Milne-Edwards and grandson of Bryan Edwards, a Jamaican planter who se ...
and
Emile Oustalet Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *''Emil and the Detective ...
in 1893, with the later agreement of the American ornithologist
James Greenway James Cowan Greenway (April 7, 1903 – June 10, 1989) was an American ornithologist. An eccentric, shy, and often reclusive man, his survey of extinct and vanishing birds provided the base for much subsequent work on bird conservation. Early ...
in 1967, as blue pigeons are principally
arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the Animal locomotion, locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. Th ...
. It has since been pointed out that other mainly
frugivorous A frugivore is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance and ...
pigeons, such as species of ''Ptilinopus'' and ''
Gallicolumba ''Gallicolumba'' is a mid-sized genus of ground-dwelling doves (family Columbidae) which occur in rainforests on the Philippines. Local name 'punay' which is a general term for pigeons and doves. They are not closely related to the American groun ...
'', do occasionally eat molluscs and other
invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
. The two species of ''
Nesoenas ''Nesoenas'' is a bird genus in the pigeon and dove family, Columbidae. It is often included with the typical turtle-doves in ''Streptopelia'' or the typical pigeons (''Columba''). By those who accepted it, it was usually treated as monotypic, c ...
'' have also been reported as eating
freshwater snails Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks which live in fresh water. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs ...
, and one was seen hunting tadpoles. Milbert may in any case have been referring to arboreal snails, as extant blue pigeons rarely land on the ground. A diet of snails would have provided the birds with calcium for egg production. Pretorius attempted to keep juvenile and adult Mauritius blue pigeons in captivity, but all his specimens died. This is probably because the species was almost exclusively frugivorous, like extant blue pigeons.


Extinction

The Mauritius blue pigeon coexisted with humans for 200 years. Its decline can be correlated with deforestation, which is also the main threat to extant blue pigeons. Little lowland forest was left on the island by 1859. Frugivorous birds often need a large area for foraging and move between forest types to feed on different types of food, which grow irregularly. Other blue pigeons perch on bare branches, making them vulnerable to hunters. Cossigny noted that the bird had become rare by 1755, but were common 23 years before, and attributed the decline to deforestation and hunting by escaped slaves. On the other hand, Bonnaterre stated they were still common in 1790. The Mauritius blue pigeon was not seasonally poisonous like the
pink pigeon The pink pigeon (''Nesoenas mayeri'') is a species of pigeon in the family Columbidae endemic to Mauritius. The pink pigeon nearly became extinct in the 1970s and the 1990s and is still very rare. It is the only Mascarene pigeon that has not beco ...
, which still survives on Mauritius today, but it was reputed to be. In spite of this, it was hunted for food, and some early accounts praised the flavour of the bird. Extant blue pigeons are also considered good food, and are heavily hunted as a result, and it appears another population of them was hunted to extinction from the
Farquhar Farquhar is a surname of Scotland, Scottish origin, derived from the Scottish Gaelic ''fearchar'', from ''fear'' ("man") and ''car'' ("beloved"). Farquharson is a further derivation of the name, meaning "son of Farquhar". The name originated as a g ...
and
Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...
islands. The Mauritius blue pigeon was easy to catch due to
island tameness Island tameness is the tendency of many populations and species of animals living on isolated islands to lose their wariness of potential predators, particularly of large animals. The term is partly synonymous with ecological naïveté, which also ...
. The last confirmed specimen was shot in the Savanne district in 1826, but the 1832 report by Desjardins suggests that some could still be found in remote forests in the centre of the island. Convinced that the pigeon still survived, the British ornithologist
Edward Newton Sir Edward Newton (10 November 1832 – 25 April 1897) was a British colonial administrator and ornithologist. He was born at Elveden Hall, Suffolk the sixth and youngest son of William Newton (MP for Ipswich), William Newton, MP. He was the ...
interviewed two inhabitants of Mauritius about the Mauritius blue pigeon in 1863, and these accounts suggest that the bird survived until at least 1837. The first interviewee claimed he had killed two specimens when the British
Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
James Simpson stayed on the island, which was 1826–37. The second was a woman who had last seen a bird around this time, and recalled hunts of it in approximately 1815, in a swampy area near
Black River Gorges Black River Gorges National Park is a national park in the hilly south-western part of Mauritius. It was proclaimed on June 15, 1994 and is managed by the National Parks and Conservation Service. It covers an area of 67.54 km² including hum ...
, south western Mauritius: It can be concluded that the Mauritius blue pigeon became extinct in the 1830s. Apart from habitat destruction and hunting, introduced predators, mainly
crab-eating macaque The crab-eating macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''), also known as the long-tailed macaque and referred to as the cynomolgus monkey in laboratories, is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. A species of macaque, the crab-eating macaqu ...
s, were probably also responsible.


References

Citations Sources * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q510638 Alectroenas Birds described in 1786 Taxa named by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli Bird extinctions since 1500 Extinct animals of Mauritius Extinct birds of Indian Ocean islands Species made extinct by human activities