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The Mascarene parrot or Mascarin (''Mascarinus mascarin'') is an extinct species of parrot that was endemic to the Mascarene island of Réunion in the western Indian Ocean. The taxonomic relationships of this species has been subject to debate. It has been connected to the Psittaculini parrots based on anatomical grounds, but to the vasa parrots based on genetic grounds. The exact placement is unresolved. The Mascarene parrot was 35 cm (14 in) in length with a large red bill and long, rounded tail feathers. Its legs were red, and it had naked red skin around the eyes and nostrils. It had a black facial mask and partially white tail feathers, but the colouration of the body, wings and head is unclear. Descriptions from life indicate the body and head were ash grey, and the white part of the tail had two dark central feathers. In contrast, descriptions based on stuffed specimens state that the body was brown and the head bluish but do not mention the dark central tail feathers. This may be due to the specimens having changed colour as a result of aging and exposure to light, as well as other forms of damage. Very little is known about the bird in life. The Mascarene parrot was first mentioned in 1674, and live specimens were later brought to Europe where they lived in captivity. The species was scientifically described in 1771. Only two stuffed specimens exist today, in Paris and Vienna. The date and cause of extinction for the Mascarene parrot is unclear. The latest account from 1834 is considered dubious, so it is probable that the species became extinct prior to 1800, and may have become extinct in the wild even earlier. ==Taxonomy== The Mascarene parrot was first mentioned by the French traveller Sieur Dubois in his 1674 travelogue and only described a few times from life afterwards. At least three live specimens were brought to France in the late 18th century and kept in captivity, two of which were described while alive. Today, two stuffed specimens exist. The holotype, specimen MNHN 211, is in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, while the other, specimen NMW 50.688, is in the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna. The latter specimen was bought from the Leverian Museum during a sale in London in 1806.〔 A third stuffed specimen existed around the turn of the 18th century. The Mascarene parrot was scientifically described as ''Psittacus mascarinus'' (abbreviated as "''mascarin''") by Swedish zoologist Carolus Linnaeus in 1771. This name was first used by French zoologist and natural philosopher Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 but was not intended as a scientific name. The name is a reference to the Mascarene Islands, which were themselves named after their Portuguese discoverer, Pedro Mascarenhas.〔 Early writers claimed the Mascarene parrot was found on Madagascar, an idea that led French naturalist and ornithologist René Primevère Lesson to coin the junior synonym ''Mascarinus madagascariensis'' in 1831. His new genus name prevailed and, when Tommaso Salvadori combined it with the earlier specific name in 1891, it became a tautonym (a scientific name in which the two parts are identical).〔 Lesson also included species of the ''Tanygnathus'' and ''Psittacula'' genera in ''Mascarinus'', but this was not accepted by other writers. The following year, German herpetologist Johann Georg Wagler erected the genus ''Coracopsis'' for the Mascarene parrot (which became ''Coracopsis mascarina'' under this system) and the lesser vasa parrot (''Coracopsis nigra''). English zoologist William Alexander Forbes, believing that ''mascarinus'' was invalid as a specific name, since it was identical to the genus name, coined the new name ''Mascarinus duboisi'' in 1879, in honour of Dubois. The binomial name was emended from ''M. mascarinus'' to ''M. mascarin'' in 2014.〔 An unidentified dark parrot seen alive by Swedish naturalist Fredrik Hasselqvist in Africa was given the name ''Psittacus obscurus'' by Linnaeus in 1758, who again synonymised it with the Mascarene parrot in 1766. Because of this association, some authors believed it was from the Mascarene Islands as well, but this dark parrot's description differs from that of the Mascarene parrot.〔 This disagreement led some authors to use now-invalid combinations of the scientific names, such as ''Mascarinus obscurus'' and ''Coracopsis obscura''. The unidentified parrot may have been an African grey parrot (''Psittacus erithacus'') instead.〔 Another unidentified parrot specimen, this one brown and housed in Cabinet du Roi, was described by French naturalist Comte de Buffon in 1779 under his entry for the Mascarene parrot, in which he pointed out similarities and differences between the two. The English palaeontologist Julian Hume has suggested the possibility that this might have been a lesser vasa parrot, if not a discoloured old Mascarene grey parakeet (''Psittacula bensoni''). The specimen is now lost.〔 English zoologist and author George Robert Gray assigned some eclectus parrot (''Eclectus roratus'') subspecies from the Moluccas to ''Mascarinus'' in his book ''A List of the Genera of Birds'' from the 1840s, but this idea was soon dismissed by other writers. Subfossil parrot remains were later excavated from grottos on Réunion. X-rays of the two existing stuffed Mascarene parrots made it possible to compare the remaining bones with the subfossils and showed these were intermediate in measurements in comparison to the modern specimens. The lesser vasa parrot was introduced to Réunion as early as 1780 but, though the subfossil parrot bones were similar to that species in some aspects, they were more similar to those of the Mascarene parrot and considered to belong to it. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mascarene parrot」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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