Rodrigues Starling

HH Slater bone material from Necropsar rodericanus

The Rodrigues -Star ( Necropsar rodericanus ) is a hypothetical species whose existence is based on an old travelogue, some subfossil bones, as well as a museum piece from Liverpool, identified now as albino specimen of the extant gray dither throttle ( Cinclocerthia gutturalis ).

In 1726 there was a travelogue in which the French researcher Julien Tafforet has described this species under the name Testudophaga bicolor as follows: " Its occurrence was (a small island that lies near the coast to Rodrigues) restricted to the island islet au MAT. He is said to have reached the size of a blackbird, had a predominantly white plumage, a dark tail, dark wings, yellow legs and a yellow bill. Its food is said to have passed from turtle eggs. "

In 1874 was Henry Horrocks Slater subfossil bones on Rodrigues, who have served as the basis for the scientific description by Albert Günther and Alfred Newton in 1879. Günther and Newton held the Rodrigues -Star for a close relative of the Hopfstars ( Fregilupus varius) and classified it in the genus Fregilupus.

Finally, a single bellows from the World Museum Liverpool became known. He was described in 1898 by Henry Ogg Forbes under the name Necropsar leguati and illustrated by the Dutch bird illustrator John Gerrard Keulemans. This specimen was acquired in 1850 by Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby by Jules Verreaux and was since then in the Liverpool Museum. In April 2000, they found, however, been based on DNA analysis, that this bellows is unique to a albinotischem copy of the gray dither throttle and the alleged existence of Rodrigues - Stars, in the opinion of the American paleontologists Storrs Lovejoy Olson is merely based on a confusion and mislabeling. ( Olson et al., Bull BOC 125:31, 2003) In contrast to Olson goes the IUCN but still continue to believe that this bird is authentic, as they Tafforets report and Slater's bones still for a sufficient proof of the existence keeps this bird.