Auckland Islands shore plover
Appearance
Auckland Islands shore plover | |
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Species: | T. rossii
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Binomial name | |
Thinornis rossii G. R. Gray, 1845[1]
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The Auckland Islands shore plover (Thinornis rossii), also called Ross's plover, is a small extinct plover known only from a single specimen, apparently collected in the Auckland Islands in 1840 by the crew of HMS Erebus, and now in the collection of the British Natural History Museum. Its status as a species distinct from the shore plover was uncertain for many years. Charles Fleming speculated about whether the lone specimen represented an unknown intermediate plumage, a melanistic mutant, or a separate species.[2] The consensus today, however, is that it is an immature Thinornis novaeseelandiae with an incorrectly-recorded location.[3]
References
- ^ Gray, G.R. (1845). Part 3. Birds. In: Richardson, J. & Gray, J.E. (eds). The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Erebus and Terror, under the command of Capt. Sir James Clark Ross during the years 1839 to 1843. Vol.1. London.
- ^ Fleming, Charles (1939). "Birds of the Chatham Islands. Part III: The Shore Plover". Emu. 39 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1071/MU939001.
- ^ Gill, Brian J.; Bell, B. D.; Chambers, G. K.; Medway, D. G.; Palma, R. L.; Scofield, R. P.; Tennyson, A. J. D.; Worthy, T. H. (2010). Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand (4th ed.). Wellington, N.Z.: Te Papa Press. ISBN 978-1-877385-59-9.