On the possible vernacular name and origin of the extinct Spotted Green Pigeon Caloenas maculata

Abstract

I reviewed data from historical works and a dictionary produced by the first missionaries in French Polynesia, in an endeavour to clarify the geographic provenance and potential date of extinction of the bird known as tītī in Tahiti, and which has been assumed to be the extinct Spotted Green Pigeon Caloenas maculata, otherwise known from a single surviving specimen held in Liverpool (UK). The name tītī was used to refer to a columbid, as well as to procellariids, and to other species whose vocalisations are transcribed ti-ti-ti. Furthermore, what was presumably the same species was also known as the tītīhope'ore, which according to the Tahitian people resembled a Long-tailed Koel Urodynamis taitensis but had a short tail. Spotted Green Pigeon possibly survived until sometime between 1801 and 1831, but by 1848 the species was almost certainly extinct, making the claim that it was seen in Tahiti as late as 1928 appear exceptionally unlikely.