Rodrigues Night Heron

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iRodrigues Night Heron

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Ciconiiformes
Family:	Ardeidae
Genus:	Nycticorax
Species:	N. megacephalus

Binomial name

Nycticorax megacephalus
(Milne-Edwards, 1873)

Synonyms

Ardea megacephala Milne-Edwards, 1873
Megaphoyx megacephala Hachisuka, 1937

The Rodrigues Night Heron (Nycticorax megacephalus) is an extinct species of heron formerly occurring on the Mascarene island of Rodrigues.

It is known from subfossil bones and the 1708 description of Leguat as well as the 1726 report of Julien Tafforet. Both authors agree that this bittern-like bird, the size of a fat chicken or small egret, was mainly terrestrial, unwary, and only flew when chased, although even in that case they initially tried to escape by running. They apparently laid greenish eggs; one of their favorite foods was geckos, probably the Rodrigues day gecko as the other local species, the Rodrigues giant day gecko was nearly as long as the bird itself (both gecko species are nowadays extinct too). Analysis of the fossil remains concluded that the bill of the species was very strong (hence the name megacephalus - "large-headed") and that it was evolving towards flightlessness.

[edit] Extinction

The bird appears to have been hunted to extinction in the mid-18th century. Pingré mentions in his report that no "bitterns" could be found on Rodrigues anymore in 1761.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Nycticorax megacephalus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 22 Jun 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is extinct.
Milne-Edwards, Alphonse (1873): Recherches sur la faune ancienne des Îles Mascareignes. Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool. (Paris) 5(19), Article 3, plate 14. [Article in French] Note: Usually, the year of publication is given as 1874. However, although the volume was nominally of that year, it was already released in 1873.