Mascarinus Lesson, 1831: 188

HUME, JULIAN PENDER, 2007, Reappraisal of the parrots (Aves: Psittacidae) from the Mascarene Islands, with comments on their ecology, morphology, and affinities, Zootaxa 1513 (1), pp. 1-76 : 35

Genus Mascarinus Lesson, 1831: 188 .

Mascarinus madagascariensis Lesson , livre 3, 1831: 188. Type by tautonomy: Mascarinus madagascariensis Lesson (1831: 189) , based on " Psittacus mascarinus, Gm ; Levaill., Perroq., pl. 139" ( Lesson, 1831: 189).

Etymology: From the French name for the parrot Le Mascarin referring to the Mascarene Islands, which were

named after the Portuguese navigator Pedro Mascarenhas, who discovered them in 1505.

Diagnosis: An aberrant monotypic genus, with large bill and a moderately long and broadly rounded tail.

Cranium moderately dorso-ventrally flattened; in rostrum, diameter of nares greater than width of the interna- rial septum; indistinct notch on the ventral surface; in mandible, fenestra mandibulae absent; proximal edge of symphysis broadly oval; angulus mandibulae flattened not angled and symphysis sharply angled, projecting ventrally (description based on drawings in Milne-Edwards (1866, 1867) ( Fig.24b ), who had the skull and jaws removed from the Paris skin).

Figures

FIGURE 24. Comparison of left ulnae of Mascarene parrots with Psittacula eupatria, dorsal aspect. A, UMZC600 Lophopsittacus mauritianus; B, UMZC1455 Necropsittacus rodericanus; C, BMNHS/1999.11.5 Psittacula eupatria ♂. Scale bar = 10mm.