Spotted Green Pigeon (1 Viewer)

Tim H Heupink, Hein van Grouw and David M Lambert. The mysterious Spotted Green Pigeon and its relation to the Dodo and its kindred. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014, 14:136 (16 July 2014).

[PDF]

I do not think the Liverpool Pigeon is the type for Latham's spotted green pigeon. Latham: " in a drawing of one at Ashton Lever's the end of the tail is deeply ferruginous." Lever's museum had lots of Cook's voyages stuff so it could have been a drawing of a third bird or of Joseph Banks' bird?? The colored drawing in Latham's work has a ferruginous color at the end of the tail. The Liverpool bird has a yellowy-brown feathers at the end of the tail. The Leverian drawing probably was by Sarah Stone who worked there. She also did drawings for Latham.
Ferruginous tail: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/127341#page/32/mode/1up .
yellowy tail: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/45992#page/112/mode/1up .
The tail feathers of the Liverpool bird are the same color as the spots. The tail end feathers of the Latham bird are closer to the color of the feet, rusty.

Is not the colored drawing in Latham acceptable as a type?

A little about General Davies:
https://archive.org/stream/cbarchiv...ptionofmenurasuperbaabir1802#page/n1/mode/2up .
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/davies_thomas_5E.html .

mb1848 said:

Is not the colored drawing in Latham acceptable as a type?

Click to expand...

A drawing can never be a type; only a specimen can be a type, and a specimen is "An example of an animal, or a fossil or work of an animal, or of a part of these" (ICZN Glossary). If a drawing is designated as the type of a new taxon, this is to be interpreted as if the author had designated the specimen that is drawn. ("73.1.4. Designation of an illustration of a single specimen as a holotype is to be treated as designation of the specimen illustrated; the fact that the specimen no longer exists or cannot be traced does not of itself invalidate the designation.")

Not sure if any conclusions can be made between the old illustrations and the tail tip colour. Even the illustration in the book varies significantly between different copies:

One copy of Latham
Another copy of Latham

Then there's also the possibility of differential fading in the specimen; the tail tip may well suffer greater fading from being more exposed to air and light.

Also a bit odd, the later Bull. Liverp. Mus. pic, and the pic in HBW 7: 35, show it with a knob on its bill. But Latham doesn't, and I can't see it on the two views of the specimen pictured in the new pdf. Is the knob an artist's error from thinking it would be like Caloenas nicobarica?

The Liverpool specimen is one of the two types, and the only surviving specimen. The species was described by Latham in 1783, in his "General Synopsis of Birds", vol. 2, p. 2, p. 642, not in 1823, in his "General History of Birds". In 1783, Latham wrote:

"In the collection of Major Davies. I likewise met with a specimen in that of Sir Joseph Banks. Native place uncertain."

Gmelin latinized Latham's description in 1789, giving it the name Columba maculata. The Banks specimen is now lost, but the Davies specimen was purchased in 1802 by Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby, who maintained a large natural history collection and menagerie on his Knowsley estate. When he died in 1851, he bequeathed his collection to the Liverpool Museum.

Yes, the knob is an error. The Liverpool specimen does not have a knob, and the artist mistakenly gave it one because of its supposed affinities with Caloenas.

van Grouw 2014

van Grouw 2014. The Spotted Green Pigeon Caloenas maculata: as dead as a Dodo, but what else do we know about it? Bull BOC 134(4): 291–301.

SUMMARY.—Described in 1783 and since then re-examined by many notable ornithologists, the single specimen known as the 'Spotted Green Pigeon' Caloenas maculata in the collections of the World Museum, Liverpool, has always been a mystery. No-one has ever doubted that it is a pigeon, and many researchers were convinced it was a distinct species. Although its taxonomic status remained unclear, it was officially declared extinct by BirdLife International in early 2008. Recent DNA analysis has now revealed that Spotted Green Pigeon can indeed be considered a distinct species within the extended Dodo Raphus cucullatus clade of morphologically very diverse pigeon species. Most members of this clade exhibit terrestrial or semi-terrestrial habits. Further morphological research into this unique specimen, initiated by the World Museum, demonstrates that Spotted Green Pigeon, in contrast to its fellow clade members, may have possessed strongly arboreal habits.

Click to expand...

Raust, P. On the possible vernacular name and origin of the extinct Spotted Green Pigeon Caloenas maculata. BBOC, 140 (1): 19 March 2020.

Abstract:

I reviewed data from historical works and a dictionary produced by the frst missionaries in French Polynesia, in an endeavour to clarify the geographic provenance and potential date of extinction of the bird known as tītī in Tahiti, and which has been assumed to be the extinct Spoted Green Pigeon Caloenas maculata, otherwise known from a single surviving specimen held in Liverpool (UK). The name tītī was used to refer to a columbid, as well as to procellariids, and to other species whose vocalisations are transcribed ti-ti-ti. Furthermore, what was presumably the same species was also known as the tītīhope’ore, which according to the Tahitian people resembled a Long-tailed Koel Urodynamis taitensis but had a short tail. Spoted Green Pigeon possibly survived until sometime between 1801 and 1831, but by 1848 the species was almost certainly extinct, making the claim that it was seen in Tahiti as late as 1928 appear exceptionally unlikely.

[pdf]