The story The Koa Finch is something of a mystery. Was it one species or was it two? Were the “Greater” and “Lesser” Koa Finches both members of the same species? During 1891 Henry Palmer was busy collecting specimens on the Hawaiian Islands for Walter Rothschild. The enormously wealthy scion of the famous banking family […]
Category: Extinct
Rodrigues Starling (Necropsar rodericanus)
The story The skeletal remains of a starling were found on the island of Rodrigues during the 1870’s. Although there may be no connection, these bones have been associated with a brief account in the document known as the Relation de l’Ile Rodrigue, which was probably written by a marooned sailor named Tafforet during 1725. […]
Rodrigues Night-heron (Nycticorax megacephalus)
The story During 1691 a small band of Huguenots, fleeing from religious persecution in France, ended up marooned for around two years on the Mascarene island of Rodrigues, far out in the Indian Ocean. Their leader was one Francois Leguat, and this gentleman made notes on the things he saw during his stay on the […]
Bachmans Warbler (Vermivora bachmanii)
The story This tiny species divided its time between the south-eastern USA and Cuba, where it wintered. It was first identified by the Reverend John Bachman, a close personal friend of the famous painter and writer John James Audubon. Bachman was a resident of Charleston, and in July 1833 he found, in a local swamp, […]
Kosrae Starling (Aplonis corvina)
The story Three starlings of the genus Aplonis have vanished. The species from Kosrae Island, one of the Caroline group in the Pacific, is known from just a series of specimens collected by F. H. von Kittlitz in December 1827. Five skins exist today, three in St Petersburg and two in Leiden; there may be […]
Ryukyu Woodpigeon (Columba jouyi)
The story This species, closely related to the last, occurred on the Ryukyu and Daito Islands, another of the island groups to the south of Japan. It was last recorded on the Daito Islands during 1936. Although certainly extinct on Okinawa where it was last seen in 1904, the species may possibly cling to existence […]
Crested Shelduck (Tadorna cristata)
The story Only a very few specimens of this striking duck are in existence, and virtually nothing is known of it in life. Even the limits of its original range are a matter of speculation; there is an assumption that it bred in eastern Siberia and migrated to Korea and Japan, but this may be […]
Bay Thrush (Turdus ulietensis)
The story This is another of those species known today only from a painting by Georg Forster. This painting, now in the Forster portfolio at the Natural History Museum, London, was produced on 1st June 1774 at Raiatea in the South Pacific, and according to an inscription it shows a female. Although no actual specimen […]
Labrador Duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius)
The story The Labrador Duck is one of the most mysterious of North American birds. It was always uncommon, shy and wary and for these reasons seems to have been little affected by shooting. Reasons for its extinction are unknown but one school of thought suggests that it was a very specialized feeder unable to […]
Samoan Moorhen (Gallinula pacifica)
The story There seem to be eleven specimens of this species in the world’s museums, the first collected during 1869 and the last perhaps a mere five years later. Since then the species has never more been located. Little is known of it other than that it inhabited the Samoan island of Savaii. It was […]