Topic
Sheldgoose
About: Sheldgoose is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2 publications have been published within this topic receiving 667 citations.
Papers
1 Aug 1987
TL;DR: The visitors who added notably to early ornithological history were Leguat (1708), on Rodrigues in 1691, Dubois (1674), on Reunion 1671-2, and Van Neck, on Mauritius 1598 or 1599 (see Strickland 1848).
Abstract: Chapter 1 has outlined the extent to which many endemic Mascarene Island birds have become extinct, probably during the last 300 years since man arrived on the islands. Thirty extinct species are recognised today (Cowles in press), but of these only five are known from skins preserved in museums and institutions throughout the world. Four of these species, the Mauritian Blue Pigeon Alectroenas nitidissima , the Mascarene Parrot from Reunion Mascarinus mascarinus , the Rodrigues Parakeet Psittacula exsul and the contentious Leguat's Starling Necropsar (Orphanopsar) leguati of unknown locality, are represented by a total of only eight skins. The Reunion Crested Starling Fregilupus varius was better represented by 24-25 skins, all documented by Hachisuka (1953), although fewer survive today (Chapter 1). The remaining 25 extinct species are known only from fossil bones discovered in caverns and deposits on the three islands. In number these range to well over 200 elements for the better known Solitaire of Rodrigues Pezophaps solitaria and perhaps the Mauritius Dodo Raphus cucullatus , but the remaining species are unfortunately known from very few bones or bone fragments. Identifications based on the osteological evidence are in some instances substantiated by field descriptions and illustrations in journals of seventeenth- century voyagers to the islands. The visitors who added notably to early ornithological history were Leguat (1708), on Rodrigues in 1691, Dubois (1674), on Reunion 1671-2, and Van Neck, on Mauritius 1598 or 1599 (see Strickland 1848). The other voyagers were listed by Hachisuka (1953) and Cheke (Chapter 1). These brief accounts of the flora and fauna of the islands were compiled by people with little ornithological knowledge, but they do provide a most valuable and historical record of the lost avifauna of the islands.
1 Aug 1987
TL;DR: This chapter is an attempt to fill the gap in the available material from an ecological point of view of the Mascarene islands by reviewing the history of Portuguese movements in the Indian Ocean in the sixteenth century.
Abstract: Although a great deal has been written about the history, both human and biological, of the Mascarenes, there has been no synthesis of the available material from an ecological point of view; this chapter is an attempt to fill this gap. I make no apologies for covering ground familiar to Mascarene specialists, since there is at present no suitable introductory work for biologists new to the area; also much of the original material is rare, and even many of the secondary sources are not easily accessible outside the islands themselves. Already known to Arab navigators, the Mascarenes were ‘discovered’ by Europeans in the early sixteenth century. The exact dates at which each island was first sighted by the Portuguese have long been a matter of debate, but are of little concern here as no useful accounts of Portuguese visits apparently survive. North-Coombes (1980b) reviewed the history of Portuguese movements in the Indian Ocean in the sixteenth century and concluded that they very rarely landed in the Mascarenes, and then probably only on Reunion. The most they appear to have left us by way of description is a note in 1728 that “Santa Apelonia” (=Reunion) had “plenty of fresh water, trees, birds and fish” (ibid.) . The next description of the islands dates from the Dutch visit to Mauritius in 1598 (see e.g. Pitot 1905, Barnwell 1948). Reunion was described briefly by Verhuff in 1611 but the earliest adequate account is Tatton's in 1613 (Tatton 1625, Lougnon 1970). Only the scantiest accounts of Rodrigues exist prior to Leguat's 2-year stay on the island in 1691-3 (North-Coombes 1971).
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 1987 | 2 |