Spotted green pigeon
| Spotted green pigeon | |
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| Restoration by Brian Small, 2002 | |
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C. maculata
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| Caloenas maculata (Gmelin, 1789)
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The spotted green pigeon or Liverpool pigeon (Caloenas maculata) is a presumed extinct pigeon species of unknown provenance. It is currently known only from a single specimen reposited in the World Museum of the National Museums Liverpool; this specimen is presumed to have been collected from French Polynesia (possibly Tahiti) some time between 1783 and 1823.
Taxonomy
The spotted green pigeon was first mentioned in the work A General Synopsis of Birds (1783), World Museum Liverpool by John Latham and scientifically named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1789.[2] On basis of the elongated neck feathers John Latham assumed a relationship with the Nicobar pigeon and Lord Rothschild regarded it as just an aberrant specimen of that species. It was probably due to Rothschild's influence that the spotted green pigeon was often overlooked by subsequent authors. Notwithstanding, it was very different from the Nicobar pigeon.[3][4]
In 1851, a juvenile specimen came into the museum collection of the Earl of Derby in Knowsley Hall which is now in the collection of the World Museum Liverpool. A second specimen which belonged to Joseph Banks is lost, and there may have been a third specimen in the Leverian collection.[5][6]
Although the spotted green pigeon is enigmatic and only known from one museum specimen, the species can be distinguished by DNA sequencing and molecular phylogeny. A 2014 study by Heupink et al. extracted DNA and compared its sequence with those of pigeon and brown mesite sequences available from GenBank. They created two phylogenetic trees, one of all sampled Columbidae, and the other specifiying on Caloenas, Didunculus, Raphinae, and Goura, as depicted below.[7][8]
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Description
It reached a size of 32 centimetres. The plumage was deep bottle green, and the neck was characterized by elongated feathers.[3] The wing and back feathers were spangled with large triangular whitish spots, and the terminal band of the tail was yellowish. Legs and feet were reddish. Contrary to older descriptions, the wings were elongated at about 225 mm long (the outer primaries are missing on the Liverpool specimen), and the bill was yellow-tipped with no knob. The tail length was 126 mm, the culmen was 20 mm and the tarsus was measured as 33 mm. Its eyes likely were red, based on the depiction by Latham and the red paint left on the Liverpool specimen.[5][9]
Behaviour and ecology
Because of how rare and enigmatic the spotted green pigeon was when it was extant, little information is known of its ecology. However, based upon its colouration, the birds probably lived in subtropical, tropical or moist lowland of forested regions. Unlike its relatives, it probably was highly arboreal rather than terrestrial.[5] Like its relatives, it would not have been migratory, living in its environment year-round.[10]
Extinction
The provenance and the reasons for its extinction remain unknown. Scientists have hypothesized that this species lived on an island with no main predators, owing to its small wings. It is also possible that it lived in forest, due to its mottled green colouration. Ornithologist David Gibbs also hypothesized that this bird might have collected on a Pacific island, due to stories told by Tahitian islanders in 1928 about a mysterious green and white spotted bird called titi, which might well have been about this pigeon.[11] However, paleontologist David Steadman revised this hypothesis and stated that the name titi is used for several bird species in French Polynesia, in particular for the procellariids.[12] BirdLife International added the spotted green pigeon to the list of extinct bird species in 2008.[10]
References
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- ↑ Gibbs, D.; E. Barnes, and J. Cox (2001). Pigeons and Doves. A Guide to the Pigeons and Doves of the World. Robertsbridge, UK: Pica Press. ISBN 1-873403-60-7
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
