The Norfolk pigeon or Norfolk Island pigeon (''Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae spadicea''), sometimes called a wood quest, was a subspecies of the

New Zealand pigeon New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

(kererū) that inhabited Norfolk Island. This population probably colonized Norfolk Island from New Zealand during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

. It became extinct around the turn of the 20th century.

Taxonomy

German naturalist

Johann Reinhold Forster Johann Reinhold Forster (22 October 1729 – 9 December 1798) was a German Reformed (Calvinist) pastor and naturalist of partially Scottish descent who made contributions to the early ornithology of Europe and North America. He is best known ...

described the Norfolk pigeon as ''Columba argetraea'' in 1794, however the name was not used. English ornithologist John Latham described it as ''Columba spadicea'' in his 1801 work ''Supplementum Indicis Ornithologici''. Twenty specimens of the Norfolk Pigeon are known. Three of these are in the Natural History Museum, Leiden, two in the Natural History Museum New York and one specimen in World Museum Liverpool. DNA extracted and sequenced from toepad tissue revealed that the Norfolk Island pigeon is genetically sister to the New Zealand ''Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae'' population. Early records from Norfolk Island indicate the local people gave it the name "wood quest", however the name was not passed on from the second settlement to the Pitcairn settlers. The term is related to the words "queece", "queest" and "quist" used for the wood pigeon in the West Midlands and southwestern England.

Ecology

The abundance of the Norfolk pigeon at the time of the island's settlement is unknown. Early records indicate the presence of the bird, but do not contain any information on its numbers. Based on the behaviour of the other subspecies, it is likely that the bird relied upon fruiting plants for food.

Extinction

The extinction of the Norfolk pigeon was caused by a combination of the introduction of

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

s and

weasel Weasels are mammals of the genus ''Mustela'' of the family Mustelidae. The genus ''Mustela'' includes the least weasels, polecats, stoats, ferrets and European mink. Members of this genus are small, active predators, with long and slender b ...

s, habitat destruction by human settlers, and direct hunting by

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...

s. Before European settlement, the bird had been hunted by Polynesian settlers of the island. When Europeans reached the island, however, the birds remained and the Polynesians did not. The Europeans took up the bird as a food source. An officer of the penal colony there, Ensign Abel Dottin William Best, recorded the species as still quite common in 1838, with his journals mentioning his successful hunting of 72 birds, including 25 on September 18, 1838. The last sighting occurred in 1901. Direct hunting by humans was probably the dominant cause of extinction.

Memorials

The Government of Norfolk Island released a stamp commemorating the bird on February 24, 1971.

References

External links

A painting of a Norfolk Island Pigeon by Paul Martinson at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
{{Taxonbar, from=Q675077 Extinct birds of Norfolk Island Treroninae Birds described in 1801