Artistic beauties of the past

 ______________________

 Possible island birds represented in paintings

    Birds have been a source of inspiration and synonymous with beauty for artists for centuries, inspiring the creation of poems, paintings and music throughout the centuries, but sometimes artists even capture strange things in their works.

Well, even if you don't believe it, there are times when artists come to portray mysterious species, so rare and that have not been seen again, whose cases remain a mystery. We are going to see some cases of this style that have existed on islands of everyone, thanks for reading, let's get started

______________________________________________

Trogon gigas Vieill

______________________________________________

    It is a species or subspecies directly related to the giant trogon, and is quite mysterious.

Originally this strange and beautiful morph of bird was known from only 3 or 4 specimens, plus this illustration, it is only known that it measured a little more than 45 cm, very large for a trogon; It is said to be from Asia, although the exact origin is not known, although it is presumed that it came from Java.

It is described as a bird of emerald golden green color, with a white breast and belly, with a tail of the same tone of green above and grayish white below, with finely green wings with stripes of various colors interspersed, in addition to having a golden beak, a true beauty.

Sadly, no specimens are currently known and the whereabouts of the 4 originals is a mystery, although it is presumed that one is in the possession of the Paris museum, it would be something that one day someone reviewing the archives finds it and shows this beautiful bird to the world again. , which today without a doubt must already be extinct.

______________________________________________

Prosobonia ellisi

______________________________________________

     It is a mysterious species of wading bird in the family Scolopacidae.

It was a species supposedly endemic to Moorea, in the region of Tahiti, French Polynesia, which was only seen during the voyages of James Cook in 1777, being described as a coastal bird with beach habits, where the locals called it te-te in Tahitian.

These illustrations show a bird somewhat lighter brown than the Tahitian Sandpiper, with no white spot behind the eye, a more conspicuous slightly rusty eye ring, two white wing bars, and rusty primary and secondary coverts; One of Latham's specimens had yellow legs and feet. The exact relationships between the Moorea and Tahitian specimens are not yet fully resolved and some are unsure if they are separate species or the same species.

Due to lack of information, almost nothing is known about it. When it disappeared it is believed to have been in the mid-19th century, due to the introduction of rats, but before that Georg Forster and William Anderson collected two specimens between September 30 and October 11, 1777, during Captain Cook's third voyage. but unfortunately the specimen disappeared and only these illustrations survived.

______________________________________________

The Tahitian Rail

______________________________________________

       The Pacific rail is an extinct species of griformes bird of the family Rallidae that lived in French Polynesia; Specifically, it was a species endemic to Tahiti, being sighted on the expeditions of James Cook, during his trip to this place in the 18th century, being described by the zoologist Johann Reinhold Forster, who accompanied Cook, describing the species for Western science. making a detailed description, he even made a color drawing of it, shortly after the artist Keulemans made the plate published in 1905, on the original watercolor, preserved in the British Museum in London.

This was described as measuring 23 cm, quite small for its genus, described as an attractive bird, as we can see in the painting, sadly, except for this document, everything related to this species is hidden from ornithologists, in addition to the fact that The date of its extinction is unknown, but it is believed to have been between 1780 and 1800.

 

______________________________________________,

Illustration of a bird without a name

______________________________________________

    

      There is a lot about this illustration but at the same time little to say, it is a mysterious drawing, supposedly made in 1793 during the Malaspina expedition, one of the great scientific expeditions of the past carried out between 1788 and 1794.

Despite the analysis, the species in the drawing has not been identified, although it is believed that it could be an extinct species, presumably it is believed that it was made in Vava'u, northern Tonga, and it is believed that this could be the rail of Tonga, (gallirallus vekamatolu), a species of rail that is known only from the description made in 2005 from the remains of the subfossil record of Tonga, perhaps the identity of this bird will always be a mystery and cannot be resolved.

_____________________________________________

Miller Chick

______________________________________________

    It is a mysterious gruiform bird of the Rallidae family endemic to Tahiti.

This is only known from two illustrations, one by Georg Forster in Tahiti during James Cook's second voyage between 1772-1775, and the other by John Frederick Miller in 1784.

Absolutely everything related to it is unknown, it is believed that it probably became extinct around 1800 due to the introduction of predators, although there is also some doubt about its existence.

_____________________________________________

Prosobonia leucoptera 

______________________________________________

   It is a mysterious bird, which is said to have inhabited Tahiti until not long ago.

Almost nothing is known about this animal, known from only one specimen, collected by Johann Reinhold Forster, and painted by his son Georg Forster in 1773, the sample is in the Leiden museum, there are only records of one specimen collected in 1777, but It was lost or destroyed, with only the painting surviving in the Central Biodiversity Museum of the Netherlands

From then on there is nothing about this bird, leaving its entire existence a deep mystery.

____________________________________________

British Columbia Giant Crow

______________________________________________

   

    This is a strange type of bird, seen in British Columbia, southern Canada.

It is described as a large crow, which, being larger than a golden eagle, almost does not fly and has reddish tail plumage, according to the lumberjacks. They are dangerous and are said to be opportunistic.

I'm putting it here because it appears in the book Sibley's Field Guide to the Birds of Western North America, where it is said to possibly be a red-tailed hawk or a different type of crow.

There is no doubt that sometimes art is a silent witness not only of our human past, but of the past of the world that surrounded our ancestors.

[Reading links]

https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porzana_nigra

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorea_sandpiper?searchToken=9y95f5wt3xrzqknt1l8ghrx3q

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahiti_sandpiper

http://feathersandthoughts.com/tag/trogon-gigas/

https://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2017/01/are-giant-flightless-ravens-something.html?m=1

https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porzana_nigra

https://loboestepariok.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/rascon-del-pacifico-gallirallus-pacificus/