Mauritius Blue-Pigeon

The feathers on the head, neck and breast of the Mauritius blue pigeon were silvery white, long, stiffened and pointed, especially around the neck. A patch of bright red, naked skin surrounded the eyes, and extended across the cheeks to the beak, which was greenish with a dark tip. The plumage of the body was indigo, and the back, scapular feathers and wings were metallic blue. The bases of the outer rectrices were partially blackish blue. The tail feathers and tail coverts were maroon. The bill was greenish with a darker tip, and the legs were dark slate-grey. The iris was reddish orange and had an inner yellow ring. The bird was 30 cm (12 in) in length, the wings were 208 mm (8.2 in), the tail was 132 mm (5.2 in), the culmen was 25 mm (1 in), and the tarsals were 28 mm (1.10 in). It was the largest and most robust member of its genus, and the hackles were longer and covered a larger area than in other blue pigeons. A Mauritian woman recalling observations of Mauritius blue pigeons around 1815 mentioned green as one of its colours. Juvenile Seychelles and Comoro blue pigeons have green feathers, so this may also have been the case for juvenile Mauritian pigeons. Some depictions and descriptions have shown the legs of Mauritius blue pigeons as red, like those of the Madagascar blue pigeon. …

Few descriptions of the behaviour of Mauritius blue pigeons are known; unpublished notes by Desjardins are now lost. The bird probably lived in pairs or small groups in humid, mountainous evergreen forests, like their extant relatives. Subfossil remains have been found in mid-west, mid-east and south-east Mauritius, indicating that the bird was once widespread. By 1812, the French naturalist Jacques Gérard Milbert stated that solitary individuals were found in river valleys. They probably became rarer during French rule in Mauritius (1715–1810), as lowland areas of the island were almost completely deforested during this time. Many other endemic species of Mauritius became extinct after the arrival of humans, so the ecosystem of the island is severely damaged and hard to conserve. Before humans arrived, forests covered Mauritius entirely, but very little remains today because of deforestation. The surviving endemic fauna is still seriously threatened. The Mauritius blue pigeon lived alongside other recently extinct Mauritian birds such as the dodo, the red rail, the Mascarene grey parakeet, the broad-billed parrot, the Mauritius scops owl, the Mascarene coot, the Mauritian shelduck, the Mauritian duck and the Mauritius night heron. …