Mauritius Gray Parrot

SCI Name:  Lophopsittacus bensoni
Protonym:   Ibis 115(3) p.417
Taxonomy:  Psittaciformes / Psittaculidae / Lophopsittacus
Taxonomy Code:  magpar1
Type Locality:  
Author:  Holyoak
Publish Year:  1973
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.

bensoni
● Constantine Walter Benson (1909-1982) English colonial administrator, ornithologist, collector (syn. Ammomanes deserti geyri, syn. Apalis chapini strausae, syn. Apalis thoracica whitei, Calamonastides, subsp. Cinnyris fuelleborni, subsp. Cisticola chiniana, subsp. Cyanolanius comorensis, subsp. Monticola sharpei, syn. Phyllastrephus terrestris suahelicus, syn. Poeoptera kenricki, ‡Psittacula, subsp. Sheppardia gunningi).
● Rex R. Benson (fl. 1931) US collector in Panama (subsp. Basileuterus melanogenys, subsp. Catharus gracilirostris).
● Col. Harry Coupland Benson (1857-1924) US Army (subsp. Callipepla douglasii).