Lord Howe pigeon | |
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George Raper's painting of the Lord Howe pigeon, which was used to describe the subspecies | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Columbiformes |
Family: | Columbidae |
Genus: | Columba |
Species: | |
Subspecies: | C. v. godmanae |
Trinomial name | |
Columba vitiensis godmanae Mathews, 1915 | |
Synonyms | |
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The Lord Howe pigeon (sometimes white-throated pigeon), Columba vitiensis godmanae, was a subspecies of the metallic pigeon which existed on Lord Howe Island. It became extinct in the 1850s. [1]
The Lord Howe pigeon was mostly brown, with a purple head and breast, and a white patch on its throat. [2]
The bird was found in an arboreal habitat, particularly closed forests. [3] Spread throughout the lowlands of Lord Howe Island, it is likely the species fed upon fruits and seeds. [4]
Lord Howe Island was discovered in 1788. [2] A written report was made Arthur Bowes, who landed on the island when the Lady Penrhyn stopped there in 1788. Parties from his ship collected many birds from the island, including many Lord Howe pigeons, which they subsequently ate. The tameness of the birds made hunting particularly easy. Lady Penrhyn had been travelling with the Charlotte, and her Captain, Thomas Gilbert, wrote that he captured five or six dozen of the birds, almost all that he found. By breaking the legs of the birds and leaving them to cry, others were drawn to investigate, allowing his near complete capture. [5]
In 1790, midshipman George Raper of HMS Sirius produced a painting of the bird. Raper had never personally travelled to Lord Howe Island, but may have seen specimens of the pigeon caught there and taken about the Sirius or another ship. Few reports of the bird's existence were made before its extinction. As no skins or specimens of the bird were ever obtained, Raper's painting, and a second painting, provide the only concrete evidence of the bird's existence. [2] [5]
Dr Foulis, who was a resident of the island from 1844 until 1847, recorded the bird as being the only bird of value on the island. At this time the island's population was only 16 humans, but the Lord Howe pigeon was soon extinct. [5]
The species was driven to extinction in the mid-19th century. Hunting by humans is believed to be the likely cause of extinction. The last recorded sighting of the bird took place in 1853. No specimens were collected before extinction. [4] The species was described by Gregory Mathews in 1915, using Raper's painting as a guide. [2] At the time, he named it Raperia godmanae for Alice Mary Godman. [6] It was eventually reclassified as a subspecies of Columba vitiensis . [7]
The morepork, also called the mopoke or the ruru, is a small brown owl found in New Zealand, Norfolk Island and formerly Lord Howe Island. The bird has almost 20 alternative common names, including mopoke and boobook—many of these names are onomatopoeic, as they emulate the bird's distinctive two-pitched call. Three subspecies of the morepork are recognized, one of which is extinct and another that exists only as a hybrid population.
Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, part of the Australian state of New South Wales. It lies 600 km (320 nmi) directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, 780 km (420 nmi) northeast of Sydney, and about 900 km (490 nmi) southwest of Norfolk Island. It is about 10 km (6.2 mi) long and between 0.3 and 2.0 km wide with an area of 14.55 km2, though just 3.98 km2 of that comprise the low-lying developed part of the island.
The white swamphen, also known as the Lord Howe swamphen, Lord Howe gallinule or white gallinule, is an extinct species of rail which lived on Lord Howe Island, east of Australia. It was first encountered when the crews of British ships visited the island between 1788 and 1790, and all contemporary accounts and illustrations were produced during this time. Today, two skins exist: the holotype in the Natural History Museum of Vienna, and another in Liverpool's World Museum. Although historical confusion has existed about the provenance of the specimens and the classification and anatomy of the bird, it is now thought to have been a distinct species endemic to Lord Howe Island and most similar to the Australasian swamphen. Subfossil bones have also been discovered since.
The Lord Howe woodhen also known as the Lord Howe Island woodhen or Lord Howe (Island) rail, is a flightless bird of the rail family, (Rallidae). It is endemic to Lord Howe Island off the Australian coast. It is currently classified as endangered by the IUCN.
Lord Howe may refer to:
The Bonin wood pigeon was a pigeon endemic to Nakodo-jima and Chichi-jima in the Ogasawara Islands, south of Japan. It is known from four recorded specimens, the first from 1827 and the last from 1889. They averaged a length of 45 cm. This pigeon died out late in the 19th century as a result of deforestation, hunting, and predation by introduced rats and cats.
George Raper was a Royal Navy officer who as an able seaman joined the crew of HMS Sirius and the First Fleet to establish a colony at Botany Bay, New South Wales, now Australia. He is best known today for his watercolour sketches of the voyage and settlement, particularly birds and flowers of Sydney Cove.
The Madeiran wood pigeon was a subspecies of the wood pigeon endemic to Madeira (Portugal), and found in the island's laurel forest habitat.
The white-headed pigeon is a pigeon native to the east coast of Australia.
The Tasman starling was described in 1836 by John Gould as a species which occurred on both Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island. In 1928 Australian ornithologist Gregory Mathews recognized that the plumage of the race from Lord Howe Island was much browner and more greyish than the plumage of the Norfolk Island race and split the species into two forms, the Norfolk starling, and the Lord Howe starling. Both subspecies are now extinct, thus so the species.
The metallic pigeon, also known as white-throated pigeon is a medium-sized, up to 37 cm long, bird in the family Columbidae.
The Polynesian ground dove or Society Islands ground dove or Tutururu is a critically endangered species of bird in the family Columbidae. Originally endemic to the Society Islands and Tuamotus in French Polynesia, it has now been extirpated from most of its former range by habitat loss and predation by introduced species such as cats and rats, and the species is now endemic only in the Acteon islands. The total population is estimated to be around 100-120 birds.
The Norfolk ground dove was a species of bird in the Columbidae, or pigeon family.
The robust white-eye, also known as the Lord Howe white-eye or robust silvereye and locally as the "big grinnell", is an extinct species of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It was endemic to the lowland forests of Lord Howe Island, east of Australia.
The Norfolk pigeon or Norfolk Island pigeon, sometimes called the wood quest, is an extinct subspecies of the New Zealand pigeon (kererū) that inhabited Norfolk Island. This population probably colonized Norfolk Island from New Zealand during the Pleistocene. It became extinct around the turn of the 20th century.
The Puerto Rican parakeet or Puerto Rican conure is an extinct species of parrot that was found on Mona Island and possibly in Puerto Rico.
The Lord Howe parakeet, also known as the Lord Howe red-fronted parakeet, is an extinct parrot endemic to Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea, part of New South Wales, Australia. It was described as full species by Tommaso Salvadori in 1891, but subsequently it has been regarded as subspecies of the red-crowned parakeet. In 2012, the IOC World Bird List recognised it as species.
The Azores wood pigeon, Columba palumbus azorica is an endemic subspecies of the common wood pigeon, located in the Atlantic Azores islands of Portugal. This endemic subspecies is the only live pigeon present in the laurel forest habitat of the Azores Islands.