Editing Rodrigues solitaire (section)

===Reproduction===

[[File:Pezophaps solitaria recreation.jpg|thumb|right|[[Photo collage]] restoration of a nesting female and a male in their environment<ref>{{cite journal |doi= 10.1080/08912963.2014.954569 |url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266260711 |title= Digital reconstruction of Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) (Aves: Columbidae) physical appearance based on early descriptive observation and other evidence |journal= Historical Biology |volume= 28 |issue= 3 |pages= 1–17 |year= 2014 |last1= Rodríguez-Pontes |first1= M. N. A.|s2cid= 86229916 }}</ref>|alt=Greyish bird]]
The most detailed account of the reproductive habits of the Rodrigues solitaire is Leguat's. He described mating and nesting as follows:

{{blockquote|When these Birds build their Nests, they choose a clean Place, gather together some Palm-Leaves for that purpose, and heap them up a foot and a half high from the Ground, on which they sit. They never lay but one Egg, which is much bigger than that of a Goose. The Male and Female both cover it in their turns, and the young is not hatch'd till at seven Weeks' end: All the while they are sitting upon it, or are bringing up their young one, which is not able to provide itself in several Months, they will not suffer any other Bird of their Species to come within two hundred Yards round of the Place; But what is very singular, is, the Males will never drive away the Females, only when he perceives one he makes a noise with his Wings to call to the Female, and she drives the unwelcome Stranger away, not leaving it till 'tis without her Bounds. The Female do's the same as to the Males, whom she leaves to the Male, and he drives them away. We have observ'd this several Times, and I affirm it to be true.
The Combats between them on this occasion last sometimes pretty long, because the Stranger only turns about, and do's not fly directly from the Nest. However, the others do not forsake it till they have quite driven it out of their Limits. After these Birds have rais'd their young One, and left it to itself, they are always together, which the other Birds are not, and tho' they happen to mingle with other Birds of the same Species, these two Companions never disunite. We have often remark'd, that some Days after the young leaves the Nest, a Company of thirty or forty brings another young one to it, and the now fledg'd Bird, with its Father and Mother joyning with the Band, march to some bye Place. We frequently follow'd them, and found that afterwards the old ones went each their way alone, or in Couples, and left the two young ones together, which we call'd a Marriage.<ref name="Rothschild1907p177"/>}}

The [[clutch (eggs)|clutch]] was described as consisting of a single egg; given the bird's large size, this led to proposals that the solitaire was [[K-selected]], which means it produced a low number of [[altricial]] offspring, which required extensive parental care until maturity. The gathering of unrelated juveniles suggests that they formed [[crèche (zoology)|crèches]], which may have followed foraging adults as part of the learning process.<ref name="Livezey1993"/> A study of subfossil remains found that the carpal knob only developed after the bird reached skeletal maturity.<ref name="HumeSteel2013"/>

{{multiple image
|align = right
|total_width = 300
|image1 = Pezophaps solitaria.jpg
|alt1 = Illustration of the skeletons of a small female and large male solitaire
|caption1 = Skeletons of a female and male collected in 1874
|image2 = Pezophaps.jpg
|caption2 = Skulls of a male and female in several views
|alt2 = Skull of male (1–3) and female (4–5) Rodrigues solitaires
}}

Tafforet's account confirms Leguat's description of reproductive behaviour, adding that Rodrigues solitaires would even attack humans approaching their chicks:
{{blockquote|They do not fly at all, having no feathers to their wings, but they flap them, and make a great noise with their wings when angry, and the noise is something like thunder in the distance. They only ly, as I am led to suppose, but once in the year, and only one egg. Not that I have seen their eggs, for I have not been able to discover where they lay. But I have never seen but one little one alone with them, and, if any one tried to approach it, they would bite him very severely. These birds live on seeds and leaves of trees, which they pick up on the ground. They have a gizzard larger than the fist, and what is surprising is that there is found in it a stone of the size of a henn's egg, of oval shape, a little flattened, although this animal cannot swallow anything larger than a small cherry-stone. I have eaten them: they are tolerably well tasted.<ref name="Rothschild1907p177"/>}}
The size difference between sexes has led to the suggestion that the Rodrigues solitaire was not monogamous as stated by Leguat, and that this deeply religious man attributed the trait to the bird for moral reasons.<ref name="NewtonClark1879"/> It has been proposed that it was instead [[Polygyny in animals|polygynous]], and the wing-rattling behaviour described for males suggests [[lek-mating]], where males gather for competitive [[mating display]].<ref name="Livezey1993">{{cite journal |doi= 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1993.tb02686.x |last= Livezey |first= B. C. |year= 1993 |title= An Ecomorphological Review of the Dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') and Solitaire (''Pezophaps solitaria''), Flightless Columbiformes of the Mascarene Islands |journal= Journal of Zoology |volume= 230 |issue= 2 |pages= 247–292 }}</ref> However, size dimorphism does occur in some monogamous birds; most other pigeons are monogamous as well.<ref name="HumeWalters2012p137"/> A 2015 article proposed that males invited females into their territories as secondary mates, which would result in the resident female acting aggressively towards the newcomer. Similar behaviour is seen in species that practice resource-defence polygyny. The territories probably provided all the food the birds needed in addition to acting as breeding-areas, and there was probably intense competition for favourable territories. The fact that Rodrigues island shrank by 90% at the end of the [[Pleistocene]] may also have contributed to such competition over territories, and thereby furthered sexual dimorphism.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/ibi.12329|first1=Ingvar|last1=Byrkjedal|first2=Gaute|last2=Grønstøl|first3=Terje|last3=Lislevand|title=Possible resource-defence polygyny in the extinct Rodrigues Solitaire ''Pezophaps solitaria'' (Columbidae: Raphini|journal=Ibis|volume=158|issue=1|pages=199–201|date=January 2016|doi-access=free}} {{free access}}</ref>