Mauke Starling
The simplicity Star ( Aplonis mavornata ) is an extinct species of bird in the family of starlings. He was endemic to the counting of the Cook Islands Mauke. The epithet " mavornata " is the result of Walter Lawry Buller's false reading of Binomens " inornata " on the label of the specimen copy. As Buller was convinced in the scientific first description in 1887, that his spelling was correct, it must be regarded in the International Regulations for Zoological Nomenclature as valid.
Features
The simplicity Star reached a length of 19.2 centimeters. The beak ridge length was 2.56 inches, the run length of 2.74 cm, the tail length of 6.4 inches, the wing length of 10.5 inches and the wingspan 32 inches. The top and bottom were dark brown with lighter brown feather hems. The head showed a weak brownish sheen. The primaries and tail were darker. The iris was yellow. The feet were dark brown, light brown, the beak.
The geographically closest relative is the Rarotonga -Star ( Aplonis cinerascens ), which is larger and has a greyish plumage with light gray feather hems. In his whole appearance of simplicity Star of the South Seas Star subspecies Aplonis tabuensis tenebrosus of the islands in the Kingdom of Tonga Niuatoputapu and Tafahi look like the most. The Samoa -Star ( Aplonis atrifusca ) is larger by about a third and has a black iris.
Extinction
The only known copy, which is located in the Natural History Museum in London and is registered under catalog number 12192, was shot by Andrew Bloxam, a naturalist of the " HMS Blonde " on Mauke on August 9, 1825. Bloxam noted that he " saw large groups of rats with long tails that under scheideten from the Pacific rat, resembled one in coat color and but the size of the brown rat " just two years after the arrival of Europeans .. In view of the danger to other Aplonis species by rats can be assumed that the plant species to extinct malanders soon after the spread of the rats.
System
The English common name of simplicity Stars is Mysterious Starling. This name refers to the fact that the origin and year of collection of the Museum copy from London for a long time was confusion. The confusion began when Walter Lawry Buller in 1887, the label was reading wrong. Richard Bowdler Sharpe 1890 corrected the binomials in Aplonis inornata. However, this was unjustified because Buller was convinced that he had read the binomials Aplonis marvornata and da Tommaso Salvadori had in 1880 awarded the name Calornis inornata for another starling. [A 1]
Although Buller's description - a few lines about the simplicity Star in an article on the Thick-billed Starling ( Aplonis striata ) - is barely adequate and the epithet does not make sense, it is in the International Regulations valid for Zoological Nomenclature.
There is a drawing of a mysterious bird of Ulieta (now Raiatea called ), which was made on 1 June 1774 by Georg Forster. Sharpe and many subsequent authors claimed that the bird is identical with the simplicity Star in the drawing, although numerous discrepancies between the museum specimen 12,192 and Forster's description of Ulieta Bird spoke against it. Erwin Stresemann rejected Sharpe's theory in 1949, although there were the following descriptions of the finishing Stars based ( including Ziswiler 1965, IUCN 1965) on Forster's bird. Published in 1986 Storrs Lovejoy Olson contains the results of his research work on the finishing Star, which quotes from Bloxams original diary and came to the conclusion that Bloxams Sturnus mautiensis is identical to Bullers Aplonis mavornata. The mystery was solved by the Museum specimen 12192. Since Bloxams records were originally published in a clean and deceptive form ( Graham & Byron, 1827), the true origin of the sizing Stars has been overlooked for a long time.