Editing Rodrigues solitaire (section)

===Diet===

{{multiple image
|align = left
|total_width = 300
|image1 = Pezophaps pelvis and gizzard stone.jpg
|alt1 = Gizzard stone, and pelvic and wishbones
|caption1 = Pelvis of a female (1) and male (2), [[furcula]] (3) and [[gizzard stone]] (4–6)
|image2 = Rodrigues Solitaire male pelvis.jpg
|caption2 = Male pelvis from below and [[coccyx]]
|alt2 = Map of human settlement on Rodrigues
}}

Leguat stated that the Rodrigues solitaire fed on [[date (fruit)|dates]], whereas Tafforet mentioned seeds and leaves. No other accounts mention diet.<ref name="Fuller2001"/> It has been suggested it ate [[latan palm]] fruits, for which it competed with the now extinct ''[[Cylindraspis]]'' tortoises. It is not known how the young were fed, but related pigeons provide [[crop milk]].<ref name="ChekeHume2008p45"/> The risings on the crop of the female may have covered glands that produced the crop milk. If the theory is correct, the birds may have practiced a division of labour, where the female stayed and fed the young crop milk, while the male collected food in the crop and delivered it to the female. It has been suggested that the maximum size attained by the solitaire and the dodo was limited by the amount of crop milk they were able to produce for their young during early growth.<ref>{{cite journal |doi= 10.1093/auk/122.3.1003 |last1= Storer |first1= Robert W. |year= 2005 |title= A possible connection between crop milk and the maximum size attainable by flightless pigeons |journal= The Auk |volume= 122 |issue= 3 |pages= 1003–1004 |doi-access= free }} {{free access}}</ref>

Several contemporary accounts state that the Rodrigues solitaire used [[gizzard stone]]s. Dodos also did this, which may imply a similar diet.<ref name="ChekeHume2008p45"/> Leguat described the stones in the following passage, mentioning that Rodrigues solitaires refused to feed in captivity:

{{blockquote|Tho' these Birds will sometimes very familiarly come up near enough to one, when we do not run after them, yet they will never grow Tame. As soon as they are caught they shed Tears without Crying, and refuse all sustenance till they die.
We find in the Gizzards of both Male and Female, a brown Stone, of the bigness of a Hen's Egg, 'tis somewhat rough, flat on one side and round on the other, heavy and hard. We believe this Stone was there when they were hatched, for let them be never so young, you meet with it always. They never have but one of 'em, and besides, the Passage from the Craw to the Gizard is so narrow, that a like Mass of half Bigness cou'd not pass. It serv'd to whet our Knives better than any other Stone Whatsoever.<ref name="Rothschild1907p177"/>}}

In 1877 three stones were found in a cavern on Rodrigues, each near a Rodrigues solitaire skeleton, and were inferred to be the gizzard stones mentioned by Leguat. One of the stones was examined and found to be [[dolerite]]: somewhat rough, hard and heavy, {{circa|{{convert|50|g|frac=4|abbr=on}}}}, but hardly flat on one side as described by Leguat. This could be due to its association with a young individual.<ref name="NewtonClark1879"/> Although Leguat asserted that the bird hatched with the gizzard stone already inside, in reality adults most likely fed the stones to their hatchlings.<ref name="ChekeHume2008p45"/>