page_title: Spotted green pigeon
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Spotted green pigeon / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Spotted Green Pigeon Caloenas maculata, sole surviving specimen at World Museum, Liverpool.
context_page_description: The spotted green pigeon or Liverpool pigeon is a species of pigeon which is most likely extinct. It was first mentioned and described in 1783 by John Latham, who had seen two specimens of unknown provenance and a drawing depicting the bird. The taxonomic relationships of the bird were long obscure, and early writers suggested many different possibilities, though the idea that it was related to the Nicobar pigeon prevailed, and it was therefore placed in the same genus, Caloenas. Today, the species is only known from a specimen kept in World Museum, Liverpool. Overlooked for much of the 20th century, it was recognised as a valid extinct species by the IUCN Red List only in 2008. It may have been native to an island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean or the Indian Ocean, and it has been suggested that a bird referred to as titi by Tahitian islanders was this bird. In 2014, a genetic study confirmed it as a distinct species related to the Nicobar pigeon, and showed that the two were the closest relatives of the extinct dodo and Rodrigues solitaire.
  The surviving specimen is 32 cm long, and has very dark, brownish plumage with a green gloss.
context_section_description: Latham's 1823 description of the spotted green pigeon from A General History of Birds (expanded from the one in A General Synopsis of Birds) reads as follows:
  Length twelve inches. Bill black, tipped with pale yellow; round the eye somewhat naked; general colour of the plumage dark green, and glossy; the head and neck are darker than the rest, and of one plain colour; the feathers of the neck long and narrow, like the hackles of a Cock; every feather of the wings and scapulars tipped with a spot of very pale cinereous white, with a point running upwards, somewhat triangular: quills and tail black; the feathers of the first tipped with cinereous white, those of the last with ferruginous white, and even at the end: belly, thighs, and vent, dusky black: the legs are brown, and the shins covered half way with downy feathers; claws black. We have only seen two specimens; one in the collection of Gen. Davies, the other in possession of Sir Joseph Banks. In a drawing of one at Sir Ashton Lever's, the end of the tail is deep ferruginous.
  Most literature addressing the spotted green pigeon simply repeated Latham's descriptions, adding little new information, until Gibbs published a more detailed description in 2001, followed by the museum curator Hein van Grouw in 2014. The surviving specimen measures 32 cm (12.6 in) in length, though study specimens are often stretched or compressed during taxidermy, and may therefore not reflect the length of a living bird. The weight has not been recorded. The spotted green pigeon appears to have been smaller and slenderer than the Nicobar pigeon, which reaches 40 cm (15.7 in), and the Kanaka pigeon appears to have been 25% larger than the latter. At 126 mm (5 in) in length, the tail is longer than that of the Nicobar pigeon, but the head is smaller in relation. The bill is 20 mm (0.8 in), and the tarsus measures 33 mm (1.3 in). Though the wings of the specimen appear to be short and rounded, and have been described as being 175 mm (6.9 in) long, van Grouw discovered that the five outer primary feathers have been pulled out of each wing, and suggested that the wings would therefore had been about 50 mm (2 in) longer in life, around 225 mm (9 in) in total. This is in accordance with Latham's 1823 illustration, which shows a bird with longer wings.
  The bill of the specimen is black with a yellowish tip, and the cere is also black, with feathers on the upper side, almost to the nostrils. The lores are naked, and the upper part of the head is sooty black. The rest of the head is mostly brownish-black. The feathers of the nape and the neck are slightly bifurcated and have a dark green gloss, the latter with coppery reflections. The feathers of the neck are elongated (sometimes referred to as hackles), and some of those on the sides and lower part have paler spots near the tips. Most of the feathers on the upperparts and wings are dark brown or brownish-black with a dark green gloss. Almost all of these feathers have a triangular, yellowish-buff spot at their tips. The spots are almost whitish on some of the scapular feathers, vague and dark on the primary feathers. The underside of the wings is black with browner flight feathers, which have a pale spot or band at the tips. The breast is brownish-black with a faint green sheen. The tail is blackish with a dark green sheen, brownish-black on the underside, with a narrow, cinnamon-coloured band at the end. This differs from the rust-coloured tail-tip apparently shown in the drawing owned by Lever, and Latham's own illustration. The legs are small and slender, have long toes, large claws, and a comparatively short tarsus, whereas the Nicobar pigeon has shorter claws and a longer tarsus.
  When examining the specimen, van Grouw noticed that the legs had at one point been detached and are now attached opposite their natural positions. The short feathering of the legs would therefore have been attached to the inner side of the upper tarsus in life, not the outer. The plate accompanying Forbes' 1898 article shows the feathers on the outer side, and depicts t
caption: Side view of the only specimen
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