Broad-billed Parrot

SCI Name:  Lophopsittacus mauritianus
Protonym:  Psittacus mauritianus Ibis 1866 p.168
Taxonomy:  Psittaciformes / Psittaculidae / Lophopsittacus
Taxonomy Code:  brbpar3
Type Locality:  
Author:  Owen
Publish Year:  1866
IUCN Status:  Extinct

DEFINITIONS

LOPHOPSITTACUS
‡ (Psittacidae; Ϯ Broad-billed Parrot L. mauritianus) Gr. λοφος lophos  crest; ψιττακος psittakos  parrot; "I think Prof. Schlegel is clearly right in assigning it to Psittacus mauritianus Owen, which we only know from a few bones. The most extraordinary feature it presents is perhaps the frontal crest, of a shape quite unlike that found, so far as I am aware, in any other form of Parrot, rising as it does from the very base of the bill and terminating before it reaches the occiput, which appears to be flat and smooth.  ...  I would therefore propose the name of LOPHOPSITTACUS for the group of which it is the type - the only known external character that we can as yet depend upon being the that afforded by the singular frontal crest" (A. Newton 1874). The Broad-billed Parrot is known only from subfossil remains and the variable accounts and drawings of early travellers, but has not been recorded since the third quarter of the 17th century.
Var. Lophopsittaca.
Synon. Megapsittacus.

mauritiana / mauritianus
Mauritius, formerly known as Île de France and Île de Maurice (named after Mauritz van Nassau (1567-1625) Prince of Orange and Stadhouder of the Dutch Republic).
● ex “Merle vert de l’isle de France” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 648, fig. 2, and “Maurituius Thrush” of Latham 1783 (syn. Hypsipetes borbonicus olivaceus).
● ex “Figuier de l’isle de France” of d’Aubenton 1765-1781, pl. 705, fig. 1, “Figuier bleu” of de Buffon 1770-1786, and “Maurice Warbler” of Latham 1783 (Zosterops).