| Mangarevan whistler | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
 Extinct (Late 19th century?) (IUCN 3.1) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Pachycephalidae |
| Genus: | Pachycephala |
| Species: | †P. gambierana |
| Binomial name | |
| †Pachycephala gambierana | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The mangarevan whistler (?Pachycephala gambierana) is a dubious species of extinct bird in the family Pachycephalidae that was once found in Mangareva in French Polynesia.
Discovery and extinction
It is a mysterious bird with no known specimens existing today. A single specimen was collected before 1840 by Pierre Adolphe Lesson during French expeditions to the island of Mangareva, French Polynesia. It was in the collection of Abeillé de Bordeaux, and a painting of the specimen was prepared by Charles Thélot de Rochefort, with both the painting and the specimen being lost today. René Lesson was the only person to study the specimen before it was lost, having done so in 1844.
It was native to the island of Mangareva and is believed to have gone extinct during the late 19th century. A 1922 expedition to Mangareva was unable to locate the species.
Classification
The mangarevan whistler is tentatively classified as a species of Pachycephala. It was initially described as a shrike known as Lanius gambieranus by Lesson (1844), then it was classified as an Eopsaltria "robin", and ?P. gambierana may actually instead be an Acrocephalus warbler, potentially being synonymous with Acrocephalus astrolabii.
References
- ^ D. T. Holyoak; J.-C. Thibault. (1984). Contribution à l’étude des oiseaux de Polynésie orientale. Mémoires du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle 127(1): 1-209.
- ^ Alice Cibois; Jon S. Beadell; Gary R. Graves; Eric Pasquet; Beth Slikas; Sarah A. Sonsthagen; Jean-Claude Thibault; Robert C. Fleischer. (2011). Charting the course of reed-warblers across the Pacific islands. Journal of Biogeography 38(10): 1963-1975.
- ^ R.-P. Lesson. (1844). Catalogue descriptif des oiseaux nouveaux, rares ou peu connus, de la collection Abeillé. L’Écho du monde savant et l’Hermès: journal analytique des nouvelles et des cours scientifiques. pt. 2: 232
- Hartl. Wiegm. Arch. für Naturg. 1852, p. 133.
- Gray, George Robert. (1859). Catalogue of the birds of the tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean in the collection of the British Museum. London: printed by order of the Trustees