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The Rodrigues parrot (''Necropsittacus rodricanus'') is an extinct parrot in the family Psittaculidae. It was endemic to the Mascarene island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. It is unclear what other species it is most closely related to, but it has been classified as a member of the tribe Psittaculini, along with other Mascarene parrots. It had similarities with the broad-billed parrot, and may have been closely related. The Rodrigues parrot was green, and had a proportionally large head and beak along with a long tail. Its exact size is unknown, but it may have been around long. It may have looked similar to the great-billed parrot. It frequented and nested on islets off southern Rodrigues to avoid introduced rats, and fed on the seeds of the ''Fernelia buxifolia'' shrub. The species is known from subfossil bones and from mentions in three contemporary accounts. It was last mentioned in 1761, and probably went extinct soon after, probably due to a combination of predation by rats, deforestation, and hunting by humans. ==Taxonomy== Parrots matching the Rodrigues parrot were first mentioned by François Leguat in 1708 and Julien Tafforet in 1726, who were both marooned on Rodrigues. The parrot was scientifically described as ''Psittacus rodricanus'' by the French ornithologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards in 1867. He moved it to its own genus ''Necropsittacus'' in 1874. The binomial, ''N. rodricanus'', translates to "dead parrot of Rodrigues", in reference to its extinction. The holotype specimen is a subfossil partial beak, but its current whereabouts are unknown. It may be specimen UMZC 575, a rostrum that was sent from Milne-Edwards' to Alfred Newton after 1880, which matches the drawing and description in Milne-Edwards' paper, but this cannot be confirmed. In addition, subfossil remains of at least four individuals have been found in the Plaine Corail. After examining a skull of the Rodrigues parrot, Edward Newton and Hans Gadow found it to be closely related to the broad-billed parrot due to their large jaws and other osteological features, but were unable to determine whether they both belonged in the same genus, since a crest was only known from the latter. Graham S. Cowles instead found their skulls too dissimilar for them to be close relatives. The skeleton of the Rodrigues parrot has similarities with the ''Tanygnathus'' and ''Psittacula'' parrot genera.〔 In his 1907 book Extinct Birds, Walther Rothschild placed two hypothetical parrot species in the ''Necropsittacus'' genus; the Réunion red and green parakeet (''Necropsittacus''? ''borbonicus'') and the Mauritian parrot (''Necropsittacus''? ''francicus''). The former was based on a single account by Sieur Dubois, and it is uncertain what the source for the latter is, so both are considered dubious today.〔 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「Rodrigues parrot」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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