Bourbon Crested Starling - Jacob De Cortimoy
Extinct circa 1840 • Réunion
"When I was a child, I have known this bird to inhabit the forest and live in flocks; their song was a clear note and they had a beautiful plumage. The bird was very tame and, being young, I killed dozens of them. When I returned to the Island after ten years in Paris, I found no further trace of them. I used to keep them in a cage without any trouble. They eat bananas, potatoes, cabbage etc." (quoted by Hachisuka, 1953)
Fuller, Errol. Extinct Birds. Ithaca, NY: Comstock Pub., 2001. 364
Bourbon Crested Starling, Chromolithograph after painting by E. de Maes from J. Fraipont's Collections Zoologiques du Baron Edmund de Selys Longchamp - Oiseaux (1910).
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