(PLATE 7.)
_Broad-billed Parrot_ Owen, Trans. Zool. Soc. VI, p. 53 (1866).
_Psittacus mauritianus_ Owen, Ibis, p. 168 (1866).
_Psittacus (Lophopsittacus) mauritianus_ A. Newton, P.Z.S. (1875), pp.
349, 350.
_Lophopsittacus mauritianus_ Newton, Enc. Brit. (ed. 9) III, p. 732,
ff. 44, 46 (1875).
This extraordinary parrot was first described and made known to science by
Professor Owen in 1866. He described it from 2 lower mandibles, much
damaged, which were dug up from the Mare aux Songes. Except a few further
osseous remains, mostly collected by Sir Edward Newton, nothing more of
importance was found relating to this bird till Professor Schlegel
discovered in the Library of Utrecht the manuscript journal kept during the
voyage to Mauritius in A.D. 1601-1602 of Wolphart Harmanszoon, in which
among other items of natural history there is a sketch of _Lophopsittacus_
from life, and the statement that it was wholly of a grey-blue colour. From
the fact that this bird is not mentioned by the voyagers who visited
Mauritius in the 2nd and 3rd decades of the 18th century, it is probable
that it was one of the first of the Mascarene birds to become extinct. This
is easily understood when we consider that the bird was apparently unable
to fly, and would like all big parrots prove excellent eating.
Only known from osseous remains and the above-quoted drawing and notes.
35 tarsi and tibiae, and 60 complete and incomplete lower mandibles and
fragments of palatine bones in the Tring Museum.
Habitat: Mauritius.
{51}