Marquesas swamphen

= Marquesas swamphen = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search Marquesas swamphen (Porphyrio paepae) is a presumably extinct species of swamphen from the Marquesas Islands Hiva Oa and Tahuata. It was originally described from 600-year-old subfossil remains from Tahuata and Hiva Oa. It may have survived to around 1900; in the lower right corner of Paul Gauguin's 1902 painting Le Sorcier d'Hiva Oa ou le Marquisien à la cape rouge[2] there is a bird which resembles native descriptions of Porphyrio paepae. Thor Heyerdahl claimed to have seen a similar flightless bird on Hiva Oa in 1937.[3]

Notice[edit]

 * 1) ^ «[…] d’Hiva Oa […]» as such, is pronounced /diˈva oˈa/, while the Polynesian h is always a /ɦ/: this shows Gauguin had a very poor knowledge of the Polynesian languages. He should have written de Hiva Oa. Despite Polynesian inscriptions, often approximative, Gauguin seems to have been unable to speak any Polynesian languages, as it is said locally.[citation needed]
 * 1) ^ «[…] d’Hiva Oa […]» as such, is pronounced /diˈva oˈa/, while the Polynesian h is always a /ɦ/: this shows Gauguin had a very poor knowledge of the Polynesian languages. He should have written de Hiva Oa. Despite Polynesian inscriptions, often approximative, Gauguin seems to have been unable to speak any Polynesian languages, as it is said locally.[citation needed]

References[edit]
Categories:
 * IUCN Red List extinct species
 * Porphyrio
 * Birds of the Marquesas Islands
 * Extinct birds of Oceania
 * Holocene extinctions
 * Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
 * Birds described in 1988