The Rodrigues parrot (Necropsittacus rodricanus) is an extinct species of parrot that was endemic to Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean. Its relationships are unclear but it is classified with other Mascarene parrots in the tribe Psittaculini and may have been related to the broad-billed parrot of Mauritius. The Rodrigues parrot was green, and had a proportionally large head and beak along with a long tail. It was the largest parrot on Rodrigues, and had the largest head of any Mascarene parrot; it may have looked similar to the great-billed parrot. By the time it was discovered, it frequented and nested on islets off southern Rodrigues, where introduced rats were absent, and fed on the seeds of the Fernelia buxifolia shrub. The species is known from subfossil bones and from mentions in contemporary accounts. It was last mentioned in 1761, and probably became extinct soon after, perhaps due to a combination of predation by rats, deforestation, and hunting by humans..

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1430:

Philip the Good established the Order of the Golden Fleece, referred to as the most prestigious, exclusive, and expensive order of chivalry in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Golden_Fleece

1812:

New Orleans, the first steamship on the Mississippi River, arrived in its namesake city to complete its maiden voyage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_%28steamboat%29

1929:

The Adventures of Tintin, a series of popular comic albums created by Belgian artist Hergé, first appeared in Le Petit Vingtième, the youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tintin

1985:

Sir Clive Sinclair launched the Sinclair C5 personal electric vehicle, "one of the great marketing bombs of postwar British industry", which later became a cult collectable despite its commercial failure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

blooper: 1. (informal) A blunder, an error. 2. (baseball, slang) A fly ball that is weakly hit just over the infielders. 3. (film, informal) A filmed or videotaped outtake that has recorded an amusing accident and/or mistake. 4. (nautical) A gaff-rigged fore-and-aft sail set from and aft of the aftmost mast of a square-rigged ship; a spanker. 5. (US, dated) A radio which interferes with other radios, causing them to bloop (squeal loudly). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blooper

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith. But it gave an immense impulse to absolutism by silencing the consciences of very religious kings, and made the good and the bad very much alike. … The way was paved for absolute monarchy to triumph over the spirit and institutions of a better age, not by isolated acts of wickedness, but by a studied philosophy of crime, and so thorough a perversion of the moral sense that the like of it had not been since the Stoics reformed the morality of paganism.   --John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton