Pezophaps solitaria
Rodrigues, Mascarene Islands · last described c. 1726
Three accounts · 1708–c. 1726
“The Bone of their Wing grows greater towards the Extremity, and forms a little round Mass under the Feathers, as big as a Musket Ball” […]
Leguat, 1708, p. 71
| Place | Rodrigues |
|---|---|
| Subject | Appearance, wings, and capture |
| Language | English · French original 1708 |
“the old ones went each their way alone, or in Couples, and left the two young ones together, which we call’d a Marriage.”
Leguat, 1708, p. 74
No other source reports this behaviour.
| Place | Rodrigues |
|---|---|
| Subject | Nesting and pairing |
| Language | English · French original 1708 |
“They have a very big head, with a sort of frontlet, as if of black velvet.”
Relation, c. 1726; English in Oliver ed., 1891, II, p. 333
The manuscript is unsigned; the attribution and date are inferred.
| Place | Rodrigues |
|---|---|
| Subject | Appearance, defence, and diet |
| Language | French · English translation |
François Leguat, 1708; Relation de l’île Rodrigue, c. 1726.
Leguat’s description of the solitaire’s appearance, wings, sexes and behaviour in captivity.
Leguat on nesting, territorial defence and the pairing of young birds, which he called a “Marriage.”
An anonymous French report on Rodrigues, usually attributed to Julien Tafforet, describing the solitaire about thirty years after Leguat.