Nesoenas rodericana (Rodrigues Turtle Dove)

[another specialist]

Carlos wrote

In Fuller (2002) Extinct Birds (Foreword - HBW7)

Rodrigues Pigeon Alectroenas rodericana

^{Columba rodericana Milne-Edwards, 1874
Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool. Ser. 5, no. 19: 14}

This species is known from bones discovered on Rodrigues during the 1870's and described by Alphonse Milne-Edwards, the celebrated expert on fossil birds at the Paris museum. Milne-Edwards described the species primarily on the evidence of a sternum, and chose to assign it to the genus Columba, whereas later researchers have shown an inclination to place it in the genus Alectroenas, alongside the extinct pigeon of Mauritius Alectroenas nitidissima. Either designation may be correct.

This is another of those rather mysterious birds that seem to have been observed in life by the Hugenot refugee François Leguat. He wrote:

The pigeons here are somewhat less than our [European pigeons] and all of a slate colour, fat and good. They perch and built their nests upon trees; they are easily taken being so tame, that we have had fifty about our table to pick up the melon seeds which we threw them, and they lik'd mightily...they never built their nests in the Isle, but in the litle Islets that are near it. We suppos'd 'twas to avoid the presecution of the rats, of which there are vast numbers in this island.

Presumably this description can be correlated with the evidence of the bones. Leguat's account clearly indicates two factors that contributed to the species' extinction - tameness and the depredations of rats.

[another specialist]

nrm.museum/ve/birds/sape/GlobalOwlProject/Fossil_owls/Cowles%201987.pdf

[another specialist]

nrm.museum/ve/birds/sape/GlobalOwlProject/Fossil_owls/Gunther%20&%20Newton%201879.pdf

[another specialist]

Extinct birds : an attempt to unite in one volume a short account of those birds which have become extinct in historical times : that is, within the last six or seven hundred years : to which are added a few which still exist, but are on the verge of extinction (1907)

[Peter]

Well, since the recent taxonomic changes, this species can also not be named "Alectroenas" rodericana anymore.

Gibb and Penny (2010) investigated the fruit-doves and close relatives. They confirmed Shapiro et al.'s (2002) result that Alectroenas and Drepanoptila are embedded in fruit-dove genus Ptilinopus. Moreover, they tested most of the major subgenera and groups, allowing for a new arrangement of the enlarged Ptilinopus. An alternative way of handling the situation would be to retain Alectroenas and Drepanoptila and break Ptilinopus into 6 genera. The alternative requires changing many more scientific names, and I do not see sufficient reason to do that at this time.

Source: www.jboyd.net/Taxo/List3.html#columbiformes.

In the book 'Lost land of the Dodo' by Anthony Cheke and Julian hume this species is called Rodrigues Dove (?Nesoenas) rodericana.

On Wikipedia is written (without a source):

This bird is usually assigned to the genus Alectroenas, but this is erroneous. In reality, it probably belongs to an undescribed genus, as the sternum's shape is very dissimilar in its details to that of Alectroenas or Columba, and indeed to any other living genus of pigeons and doves. It is most similar to that of the Gallicolumba ground doves or to a miniature version of the sternum of a Ducula imperial pigeon. If this similarity is not based on convergence, considering the evolutionary relationships of the dodo and the Rodrigues Solitaire, the Rodrigues Grey Pigeon is quite possibly the closest relative of the Raphidae that was still alive in historic times. This does not mean that there is any close relationship between this bird and the didine pigeons, only that both derived, independently, from the same Indo-Asiatic lineage, which became extinct millions of years ago.

In 'Lost land of the Dodo' the following is written:

Rodrigues had at least two native pigeons, both confirmed by skeletal material and a few descriptions, The Rodrigues Dove ?Nesoenas rodericana has skeletal characters unlike any other pigeon and it is clearly highly derived, apparently from a Nesoenas-type ancestor (JPH, work in progress). Some fossil elements referable to Malagasy Turtle Dove Nesoenas picturata have also been found, but it does not occur on Rodrigues today.
The pigeons were already avoiding mainland and nesting on the islets in 1691-92, due to persecution by rats. Tafforet made a brief mention of them in 1726, stating that they were rare on the mainland and common only on the islets. The astronomer Pingré declared them totally extinct by 1761; the early accounts did not distinguish the species.

"JPH, work in progress", meaning possibly the upcoming work of Julian Hume in 2011??; see this thread. We'll have to wait and see.

And finally, I also see that the account of Tafforet (1726) is not mentioned here yet (source: Lost land of the Dodo):

The doves there are in great numbers, but on the mainland very few are seen, because they go to feed on the islets to the south, as well as the parrots, and come to drink likewise on the mainland.

[adzebill]

Well, it seems that there was an Alectroenas on Rodriguez after all, but not the species known as 'Columba' rodericana (that one is now referred as Nesoenas rodericana).
So in Rodriguez there was 1 species of Alectroenas and 1 species of Nesoenas.

Source:
Julian Pender Hume
Systematics, morphology, and ecology of pigeons and doves (Aves: Columbidae) of the Mascarene
Islands with three new species
Zootaxa 3124
www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2011/f/z03124p062f.pdf

Only the abstract is free... what a pity

[Melanie]

Fortunately I've got the full PDF from Birdforum. So if you have interest send me a PN with your valid email addres. Especially the change within the Rodrigues Pigeon (which is now called Rodrigues Turtle Dove) is very interesting. By the way parts of Hume's study can be read in The Lost Land of the Dodo. (2008, Cheke & Hume).